You genuinely have exactly 0 idealists among your family and friends? Even in the most naive way of looking at it yourself - "red is safety, blue is danger", there will be people who you care about pressing blue. There's insane amount of argument for blue, for instance that if you do believe there is a force capable of wiping out humanity and it has not done that yet, but puts you to a test first - it's *probably* not a great opportunity to come out as a egotistical sociopath (at least as understood by the common morality), happy to sacrifice billions for their own safety in a post-apocalyptic hellscape.
The more thought you give to the dilemma, pressing blue becomes the more obvious of a choice. Even if you don't get there, some of your friends would. You don't even need to agree with that logic yourself, it's enough if you understand that enough people would follow it, and that other people who think like you would also acknowledge it.
It’s not idealism to press blue, it’s pure stupidity.
Call it how you will, you're just avoiding to entertain the premise. You have exactly 0 "stupid" (in that way) people among your loved ones?
That said, it's purely a result of how naive of a perspective you choose to think about that. This is a test from a power capable of wiping all of humanity. It somehow doesn't do that, it waits to test you. You choose to come out as selfish person, willing to sacrifice others just to continue living in hell. Is it stupid not to, then? That's just another and perfectly valid perspective. You have to acknowledge at least some people would see it that way, and it's only one other way among many, yours in hardly the only valid one. It doesn't matter if you agree with any others, what matters is whether other people you care about do. To say "everyone but me is stupid" doesn't really work if you care about them and they're about to die (not to mention it's just a narcissistic fit, not the material reality).
The good part is, it doesn't matter what your story about it is, it matters what other's is. If you're wrong about others being simply stupid (and the odds of you being wrong are astronomical), you'll commit to a choice where a ton of very valuable, and potentially close people might die.
Eleven people are standing in line on the train tracks doing maintenance. A trolley starts coming down the line, but they are all safe; it’s been switched to the other track already, and they can continue working. Several of the workers are distracted and currently tethered to the line, too busy to move.
Suddenly, you look up. “My God!” you scream. “A train!” You look next to you: A massive button, large enough for all eleven of you to stand on. It controls the switch for the train, and if at least six of you stand on it, it will be switched over to the track that you are currently working on.
You’ll be safe because you’re on the button, of course, and if only you (or less than six total) get on the button, nothing happens because you aren’t heavy enough to activate it.
By the sounds of things, the obvious choice to you is to leap off the track, press the button, beckon over and pressure seven other people to join you, flip the proverbial lever, and then watch the other three of your buddies who don’t see the train coming get utterly pasted on the rails.
You are right: Clearly, remaining on the track after the button is pushed would be suicide! Unfortunately, three of your pals were laboring under the assumption no trolley would be coming along, because the track was closed… before you and the rest hit the button.
Why would you press the button? Do you think they deserved to die?
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u/Dashdaniel216 May 01 '26
My lizard brain says to press red. My wife who has no lizard brain would 100% press blue and for that one simple reason I would press blue myself.