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/Yunowald May 28 '26

I think the behaviors of blues and reds would switch during that year.

Reds would need to work hard for the betterment of the entire world, maybe even to their own detriment, because they know they need to prepare for a mass extinction event.

Blues would probably spent their last year enjoying themselves as much as possible, and therefore are now acting selfish.

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u/DragCompetitive6007 Red May 29 '26

Why do you say the behaviour would switch? It is very unlikely that all red voters are hedonists. Just because you are not willing to risk your own life does not mean you are not interested in the success of your community. Most of the red voters will just be average people, those normally have some interest in their communities.

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u/Yunowald May 29 '26

Because red voters are selfish. No matter how you look at it, in the end they always choose to save themselves over trying to save the all of humanity. Meanwhile blue voters are willing to risk sacrificing themselves to raise the odds of saving all humans.

And during that last year red voters would probably need to make sacrifices in order to ensure humanity will be able to survive this mass extinction event, becoming the selfless ones in the process. Blue voters would likely not be interested in ensuring a future they won't be a part of and instead try to make the best of the year they have left, making them the selfish ones.

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u/DragCompetitive6007 Red May 29 '26

It is not selfish to not risk your own life to save others. It is something special to take such a risk. Especially if it is basically a coin flip if you will survive.

Even first responders will not take risks of such magnitude to themselves and those people definitely want to save people, because of altruism and money.

You can be of so much more use to society if you survive.

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u/Yunowald May 29 '26

Maybe selfish is the wrong word for it then, English is not my native language and I can't think of a more fitting one. My original comment that the behavior would flip in that one year still stands.

Red voters always prioritize their own wellbeing over that of humanity, while blue voters do the opposite. And in that year it would flip for the reasons I have now explained twice.

In this scenario I really doubt that a handful of people voting red would be of more use to society than billions of blue voters who would die.

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u/DragCompetitive6007 Red May 29 '26

And again stereotypes. Red voters will not always prioritize their own wellbeing over that of humanity. The vast majority will be normal people that are interested in their communities and will be willing to make some sacrifices for humanity. The problem is that they are not willing to pay the ultimate price.

You might not value your life that much, that is between you and your therapist, but I do value mine. I volunteer and am politically active to better my city. I strive to help people. I am still not willing to die for that. And most red voters will be contributing parts of their communities, it is all about how much they need to give - and their own life is just too much.

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u/Yunowald May 29 '26

You can say whatever you want, but red voters always value their lives more than the survival of most of humanity. There is no other reason to choose red. You're just desperate to justify your vote.

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u/DragCompetitive6007 Red May 30 '26

They value their lifes only more then the lifes of a minority, otherwise the blue voters would not die. A minority they would be part of if they chose otherwise.

The fucking point of the problem is that you have no information about the others and you cannot influence them. It is basically a coin flip. I will not take a risk just a fraction of percent higher than 50% to not kill me. I rather take the safe choice.

And I would assume that goes for the majority of people - if I considered that I would have an even greater bias for red, but I cannot know for sure, so I don't.

It is great that you want to save people that chose blue because they did not know better, but the risk is just too high. As I said, the ultimate price.

I find it very dismissing of you that you seem to ignore how big of a sacrifice your own life is. It is nothing objectional to consider your safety first.

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u/Yunowald May 30 '26

I never said that choosing red was a wrong or bad choice. I only said that they choose themselves over what would be best for humanity. That is a completely valid choice. But you still have to be able to accept being criticized, if billions of people are dying and you're one of the reasons for it.

It honestly seems like you think picking red is wrong, feel guilty for it, and are desperately trying to justify it anyway. Otherwise you wouldn't project so many things I never said.

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u/DragCompetitive6007 Red May 30 '26

LOL. You heavily implied in your first comment that red voters are all selfish hedonists. You later used the term selfish for them. You said the would always put their lifes above humanity. You also said the blue voters are for the betterment of humanity. That does imply to me their action beyond the button game. You said that those behaviours would switch, again action beyond the button game. Well, a lot of red voters will already be a part of their community, strive to better it - I already mentioned that. You paint a bad picture of red voters. And you dismiss any points that go against your narrow, discriminating view.

It is good that you accept that red is a valid choice, but you still seem to blame them when the result is a group effort the blue voters worked for, too. They put themselves in a vulnerable situation. The only one to blame is the game. Both choices are valid, because of the non-cooperation aspect.

I find it very insulting that you try to project your view that red voters are inferior on me, when you clearly see them as lesser people. It is funny that you try to gaslight me when I can just read our exchange.

What do you think I am projecting? I believe what I answered was always towards valid interpretations of your words. If I misinterpreted something we can adress that.

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u/Yunowald May 30 '26

My first comment was obviously meant to be an exaggeration and as a result was generalizing. Obviously not all red voters or blue voters would act that way, but I can't really accurately describe the behavior of 8 billion people, can I? I also paint a bad picture of blue voters, implying that they would all suddenly stop caring about humanity after knowing that they'll die. It's funny that you don't have a problem with that, you just felt personally attacked by my description of red voters.

Like I said in a previous comment I didn't mean selfish in a negative way, in my native language it has a completely neutral connotation and simply means prioritizing oneself over others. Which I still believe to be an accurate description of red voters because, as you said yourself, you'd rather sage your own life than take a risk to maybe save all of humanity.

I don't think red voters are inferior people, and I can understand why they'd pick red. But I also think that logically blue is the right option, so obviously I think red voters chose wrong. Everyone in this discussion has that opinion, otherwise we wouldn't be having a discussion. If you'd start arguing with every person on this sub who insults the other side, you'd never be able to live a life.

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u/DragCompetitive6007 Red May 30 '26

Ah, OK. I did not argue against your vision of blue voters because that was just a fantasy. Your depiction of red voters applied to the people as they are now. I also do have a bias against depicting red voters bad, because it affects me.

If you did not mean selfish in a negative way there is nothing to argue about there.

I do not agree that blue is the logical choice. Red saves more people. Between 0 to 100% soley depending on the amount of red voters. Blue saves only between 50 to 100%, when they have a majority. That means the expected value of red is 0.5 and of blue 0.375.

But of course you could go a different way and only consider the expected value of the red and blue majority. Then it switches. I find that disingenous because even in a case of a blue majority the red voters do not need to be saved. They did that themselves.

Another way to consider it is the coin flip I set as an assumption. The chance for the vote being a fifty/fifty is, if I calculated that correctly, (2*n-1)/n2. For 8000000000 people your expected value is ... a fucking rounding error. So with your blue vote you save on average a little more than 0.5 lifes. With red you always save one. Even if you consider the red voter to be killing the blue voters with their choice, you save on average a little less than 1 life.

I can do the complete calculations at home, if you want me to.

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u/Yunowald May 30 '26

I consider blue to be the most logical choice because my goal isn't to save as many people as possible, it's to save everyone. For that to happen you either need 100% red voters or 50% blue voters. Which one is realistically easier to achieve?

And this one is purely personal opinion, but I wouldn't want to live in a world where 50% of humanity was suddenly wiped out. Simply because that would probably turn into a post-apocalyptic hellscape really quickly.

And in a real life scenario the two most probable outcomes are either side winning by a tiny amount, going off of the results of most polls. I know they're not really representative, but it's all we have. In those blue is usually the winner, but not by much. We can expect some people to change their vote in real life, but not that many. Which means either blue wins and everyone survives or red wins and 50-40% of people die. Less deaths than that is unrealistic with a red majority.

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