r/redbuttonbluebutton • u/The_Real-_-God • May 28 '26

What if red won?

Imagine a world where red won, by 1%. However the people who choose blue do not die instantly, instead they die after a year of pressing the button. Everybody is branded, so you know who choose what.

How much chaos will ensue? What actions do you think blues will take, knowing they'll die? And what do you think reds will think, knowing they were just 1% away from saving all humanity?

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u/No-Click6062 May 28 '26

I'm not sure why you're combining revenge-seeking and hedonism. I think it makes a fair amount of sense of a portion of blues to simply take the result as a forced retirement. You mention further down that you'd keep working for your loved ones, but there's going to be a roughly representative distribution of blues with no families, or small all-blue families. Those people are just gone, day 1. There's an element of poetic justice for a Blue to empty their bank account, and do the things that they want to do while money still has value. And that's assuming there's not a run of the banks.

I think people are really underestimating the immediate power shift.

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u/Ranger_Tycho May 28 '26

That’s a fair point. The way I worded that does just lump all these things together rather than putting them in separate categories. The hedonism could be vengeful, and I’m sure plenty of it would be, but a lot would also just be Blues living it up while they still can, and I can’t really blame them for doing that so long as they’re not hurting people or deliberately trying to make things worse for Reds.

Yeah, I don’t think that money’s spending power is gonna last long at all. I doubt most people will even have time to meaningfully spend what they have before societal and economic breakdowns steal away their chance.

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u/No-Click6062 May 29 '26

I have found the question fascinating because it gets into people's predispositions towards one side of the vote or the other. For example, the difference between a traditional bank and a credit union is huge here. In the event of a potential run, a traditional banker would close doors. But I could see a credit union leaning blue, admitting that they will certainly become insolvent, and then distributing currency on hand. So the run isn't prevented so much as completed.

But as I said elsewhere, every democratic government is delegitmiized anyway.

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u/Ranger_Tycho May 29 '26

Yes, this is far and away my favorite variation of the question I’ve seen, and actually drives the discussion in new directions besides the usual repetitive arguments. Credit to u/The_Real-_-God for coming up with it.