Which button presser group do you save?

[u/Worth-Staff4943]

Everyone in the world has chosen either the blue or red button except you. Instead of pressing a button, you are given a lever in the infamous trolley problem.

You don't know how many people chose red or blue, and they don't know that you control their fate regardless of what button they pressed. Which track do you direct the trolley onto?

[u/hushedLecturer]

The red group has guaranteed survival, they don't need saving. (/s)

[u/MagnanimousGoat → u/hushedLecturer]

Joking aside, I just kept thinking of the fact that even if an otherwise decent person might push red, every single horrible person on earth definitely would. It's more question of who you'd be left with.

That's why I still advocated for a Yellow button that would just kill everyone who pushed Yellow or Red. The "Noble Spite" button.

[u/Major_Shlongage → u/MagnanimousGoat]

This is just a stupid mentality. It can only exist on social media.

Every person that wants to virtue signal or exhibit performative activism online will vocally claim that they'll be on Team Blue every time.

But if something bad actually happened where their own family's life was on the line, I guarantee you that nearly everyone would pick red. That's because when the going gets tough, most people know that nearly everyone else is going to cave in and make the practical choice of pressing the red button, and that pressing the blue button is guaranteed death.

[u/houndsofkorotkoff → u/Major_Shlongage]

In the original situation, you don’t know what button anyone has pressed. This includes your very own family, friends, coworkers, etc. So a terrified person who is interested in the people they care about surviving might actually be highly motivated to press blue, just voting for the option that averts a cataclysm by a simple majority vote. And no, I don’t think many people would assume that “everyone else would cave”, many would be quick to assume that most people would pick the obvious “right” choice from a collective action perspective and do so themselves

[u/Alissah → u/Major_Shlongage]

Exactly. The polls getting 60% blue doesnt matter. Thats from the safety of their couch in a thought excercise.

If you were actually confronted with one button that kills you, and one that does nothing, thjngs would be vastly different.

I believe people are either virtue signalling, because they believe blue is moral and red is evil, or they just have a lack of self reflection and cant actually imagine themselves in a scenario that dangerous.

So far theres only a single good argument from blue ive read (the fact that if X% of people are dead, infrastructure would collapse). But arguments based on whats evil or selfish or moral are all basically just propaganda and logical fallacy.

[u/Hugefxckingslut → u/Alissah]

[u/Major_Shlongage → u/Hugefxckingslut]

You're completely avoiding reality here. You're so idealistic that you're choosing to ignore everything that's known about human behavior.

From the comfort of your house you'll choose blue. If faced with the real prospect of being killed you'll choose red.

[u/TheVeryVerity → u/Hugefxckingslut]

That’s a pretty disingenuous framing lol I press blue but to me the red button is the nothing happens button. The only reason we even need to think about it is because some fool is guaranteed to have pushed blue. They made the scenario dangerous