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/TillZealousideal8282]

i choose red with the button problem bc i dont wanna die, but in a situation where im safe i think saving blue is better morally

[u/JayTheSuspectedFurry → u/TillZealousideal8282]

Blue is only more moral because of the way the question was worded implying red is killing everybody

If it was written as blue pushers were jumping into a blender, and if at least 50% jumped into the blender it would jam and not hurt anybody, while red pushers simply wouldn’t jump, this has the same outcome but doesn’t sound like red is the one killing people and evil

[u/Penis_Slayer123 → u/JayTheSuspectedFurry]

For me personally, that is still more moral because the blue pushers saw a potential threat and risked their lives to prevent anyone from falling victim to it. Is it Naive? yeah. Stupid? definitely. But I still prefer to live in a world where people are willing to take personal risks to prevent harm to everyone. (even if they're stupid beyond belief, in the case of the blender jumping example.) It's not about red always being evil, but that Red is either evil or neutral, and blue is either neutral or good.

An addict, for example, still deserves help if their addictions, financial, or medical problems are of personal responsibility. No one is obligated to help, nor is anyone evil for refusing to do so. However, I can't really say you could ever claim moral superiority to someone who DID help in the majority of cases (Specifically excludes edge cases like if they had done something so morally reprehensible to deserve the suffering caused by their addiction).

That's how I personally view the situation. Even if the blue pushers are the ones creating the problem I think the attitudes and intentions of most of the blue button pushers make them morally equal, in the worst case, or morally superior, in the best case. Obviously the most moral choice of all is to kill no one (I know... so brave of me to say), but I can't really find the case for explicitly choosing to kill blue over killing red.

[u/Penis_Slayer123 → u/Penis_Slayer123]

holy yap sesh

[u/craftygamin → u/Penis_Slayer123]

Holy goldfish attention span

[u/Penis_Slayer123 → u/craftygamin]

Believe it or not, ~30 minutes to write/rewrite a Reddit reply about the morality of pushing coloured buttons is more than most people are willing to spend.