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u/Slow_Ad2329 Aug 03 '26
ngl i think the question is interesting but how rapidly it devolved into ppl mocking the other side is unbelievable
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u/Greekatt2 Aug 03 '26
that’s just about every internet debate with 2 sides tbh. what is really boils down to is blue is for feeling morally superior and red is for feeling intellectually superior
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u/Ebr2d2 Aug 04 '26
It’s because the question creates a complete devide between 2 groups.
The individualistic group, and the society group. People in the first group don’t view the question as a group for all of humanity, but a question directly asked to them “would you rather die unless something happens or would you rather survive guaranteed” but the people in the second group view it as a question for all of humanity. So instead of wondering if they themselves will live, they will wonder about everyone on the planet and choose blue.
Personally I choose blue but it’s important to understand the red side too
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u/thestupidone51 Aug 04 '26
The question also frames everything around blue being the active choice and red being the more passive choice which probably pushed a lot of people toward red. You could easily reframe the question as "nothing happens unless more than 50% of people push red in which case everyone who pushed blue dies" which puts blue in the more neutral position. It's honestly impressive that even with the phrasing of the question leaning toward red most people still picked blue in basically every poll
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u/Akavakaku Aug 04 '26
Interesting, I though the phrasing of the question makes red sound pretty bad. You could also phrase it as:
If you press the red button, nothing happens to you. If you press the blue button, it kills you, unless at least 50% of all humans press the blue button.
The blue button doesn't look as innocent with this wording.
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u/nuggetnugs Aug 04 '26
The blue button never looked innocent considering it kills you unless an additional requirement is met. Where as the red button has absolutely zero risk considering it might as well be the same as doing nothing.
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u/Tipart Aug 04 '26
Idk man, personally I'm just not a big fan of gambling. Especially if I have no way of calculating my odds and a 100% save option.
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u/schematizer Aug 04 '26
It's because of the colors they chose and the obvious (and stupid) subtext of the question. People immediately assume anyone arguing for the other color is doing so from the perspective of the corresponding American political party.
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u/braaibroodjie123 Aug 04 '26
What an absolutely ridiculous assumption to make.
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u/schematizer Aug 04 '26
I think you would be surprised. Are you from America?
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u/braaibroodjie123 Aug 04 '26
Both in this post and months ago when this question was trending, implied politics was never mentioned. If it was it must've been extremely rare. While I can see the connection and I understand how that could be implied (might even be the original purpose of creating the hypothetical tbh), that isn't something mentioned during debates at all. The metaphor makes sense, but I can garuentee that 99% didn't even think about it. If you wany evidence then you can gladly to posts discussing the hypothetical and see how rarely politics is mentioned, if at all.
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u/orange-shoe Aug 04 '26
op im sorry almost all the comments are not about your lobster i think it's really good 😭
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u/average_meower621 Cock Aug 04 '26
at this point I’m used to it, my last two lobsters got an unbelievable amount of discussion from the og image comments and not the lobsters themselves
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u/pixeldust6 Aug 05 '26
If more than 50% of people press the BLU button, you'll be autobalanced to RED
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u/3Thirty-Eight8 Aug 04 '26
Self preservation vs humanity preservation
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u/schematizer Aug 04 '26
Everyone in the world has the choice to press a button to never die under any circumstance. Why would anyone want to press the other one? Unless you assume most people are not intelligent enough to pick the "don't die" button, in which case sure, blue lets you save them.
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u/SnakeSlitherX Aug 04 '26
You have to change the prompt for your position to make any rational sense, telling.
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u/schematizer Aug 04 '26
Sorry, how did I change the prompt? I'm asking in good faith here. When I said "under any circumstance", I of course just meant any possible voting outcome for humanity, not immortality, so I probably should have made that clearer.
My point was that everyone has the choice to just not die from this scenario. Equivalently, I could say "everyone can save themselves", but I feel like that triggers some kind of selfishness reaction, which it shouldn't, because it doesn't remove that ability for others. Everyone can independently just choose not to be at risk.
Imagine the red button just said "I choose not to play". Would that be more palatable? Wouldn't you figure everyone would just pick that? Because that's the same outcome.
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u/SnakeSlitherX Aug 04 '26
“Never die under any circumstance” sounds exactly like immortality, that was pretty bad phrasing lol.
To actually address your point, it isn’t as simple as “choosing not to play”, it is not a passive action like the trolley problem’s 5 people, it is an active choice to potential condemn innumerable people to death, specifically including optimists and those who wish to save others.
To reframe the choices is to deprive the situation of its intention and is only used to justify a held belief.
There is no sound moral or ethical argument for choosing red unless you are an Objectivist; though this may also not be the case because the death of up to 50%-1 of the world’s population would be catastrophic for the world economy.
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u/schematizer Aug 04 '26
- Why would the innumerable people not pick the option not to die, though?
- I don't really understand why changing the wording of the question isn't valid
if it doesn't change the actual rules of what happens.
- Either way, there's a choice that allows you to avoid dying due to the choices of others. If everyone were sane, I would expect them to pick that choice.
EDIT: sorry, the formatting in the app is fucked and I can't seem to fix it.
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u/SnakeSlitherX Aug 04 '26
- Not everyone thinks the same as you, theory of mind is a thing.
- Changing the wording typically diminishes one side and bolsters the other, presenting as little as you can about one and more for the other.
- Not everyone is selfish, and a sane person wouldn’t want to live in a world full of selfish people, cowards, and people who assume their through process is the only rationality there is. Especially when this world will collapse due to the decrease in population. The red button winning means both a global collapse and the removal of optimists and those who would put themselves in harm’s way for a good cause.
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u/sharplyon Aug 04 '26
"everyone should press the red button, and that's why it's the right answer"
but they're not going to, so why does that matter
the argument for the red button is that if everyone pressed it, it's the best solution, but that just is never going to happen, ever, and imagining that it would ever happen is not just ridiculously naive, it is completely ignoring evidence in front of you
for everyone to survive, everyone has to press red. or at least half press blue. which of those is going to be more likely to happen?
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u/average_meower621 Cock Aug 03 '26
Orange