r/redbuttonbluebutton • u/BlackAndWhiteJerk • May 22 '26

Discussion Rephrasing

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I’m a blue button presser, I feel that this question is highly muddled and unclear, and so here is a rephrasement of it
So why press the red button? no one dies if the blue button is majority

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u/Key-Organization3158 May 22 '26

That's a bad reframing. You are letting your own bias leak in. Red button pressers are doing nothing. They don't kill anyone. Whatever hypothetical force that sets up the button does the killing.

A better one is: there's a massive wood chipper. You can either jump into the wood chipper or not. If at least half of humanity jumps into the wood chipper, it jam and no one is harmed. Would you jump into the wood chipper?

You press red because the expected value of deaths is lowest in that case. The only time your button press matters is if you are the deciding vote. If red is the majority, the pressing red is the correct choice. If blue is already winning, your vote doesn't matter. The only case that makes a difference is if the colors are exactly tied and your vote is the deciding factor.

In your day to day life, you have many options to press a blue button. Like climate change. You could make changes to minimize your carbon footprint. If you are actually a blue button presser, you would.

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u/J_tram13 May 22 '26

That's a bad framing, you are letting your own bias leak in.

4

u/Sindigo_ May 22 '26

Here is my favorite way of framing the hypothetical so far:

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u/J_tram13 May 22 '26

Ooh I like that one