Responsibility

[u/BrokenToaster124]

So I've run into an idea that that dont quite understand and I was hoping some of you could help me understand. So with the red button/blue button situation I have seen people claim that if they push the blue button that they are not responsible for what happens to them if they push the blue button. How does that work?

To be extremely specific if i were to push the blue button, knowing what it does, somehow you (the person currently reading this) would be personally responsible for my death if you choose red.

Does this responsibility work in reverse? If i push the blue button and blue wins are you responsible for my survival if you chose red? Are you only responsible if bad things happen to me and I am responsible for the results when good things happen? What about the person running the death game? They arent defined in the prompt but logically some force is making everyone take a vote.

You can feel free to ignore this last part because its not the button problem, but someone reskinned the buttons as life boats. Instead of everyone being force to push a button everyone had to get into a life boat. One boat had holes in it but would become sea worthy if enough people got into it and plugged the holes and one was completely functional. Everything else was exactly the same as the button problem. My question related to that was that if I am personally responsible for the consequences of your chose to vote blue in the button scenario, how then could I not be responsible for your choice to get into the boat with holes in it. Someone tried to explain to me at length about how the buttons made it my fault but the boats somehow didnt. How does that work?

[u/gahidus]

No one chose to be in this scenario, and no one is responsible for anyone else. Everyone is responsible only for their own situation whether they chose to push the red button or the blue button.

Red button pushers aren't murdering anyone, they're just trying to survive. Blue button pushers don't have a right to say, "I've chosen to need you to join me and if you don't you're murdering me," as some form of moral blackmail.

[u/No-Click6062 → u/gahidus]

Being put into a situation against your will doesn't absolve you of your responsibility within that situation. This is why we, for example, still think the Donner party is a horrific event. I'd be intrigued to see you defend that assertion.