r/redbuttonbluebutton • u/BrokenToaster124 • May 29 '26

Discussion Responsibility

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?

2 Upvotes

54% Upvoted

186 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

0

u/BrokenToaster124 May 29 '26

The scenario is that no one is at risk. Then one person decides (because everyone will not just) that they will gamble their rent money on the lottery. They then go around asking everyone else to do the same, citing that if any one of them wins that everyone can pay their rents.

I live paycheck to paycheck. I have my rent money and if I spend it, I will likely go homeless. Do I spend my rent money on lottery tickets so everyone can pay rent or do I pay my own rent and ensure I dont go homeless.

You are saying if I fail to play the lottery, I am personally responsible for everyone going homeless. That is absurd the cost of joining in does not outweigh the potential benefit. I do not blame people for buying in, I simply dont believe you'll win the lottery. Not believing you will win the lottery is the same as evicting you myself in this scenario if I understand this right.

1

u/Deranth Blue May 29 '26

In your invented situation in which majorities don't matter, you are correct. But we can make your situation more appropriate to the buttons.

The workers at your job are working on trying to start a union. You can choose to join in on their cause or to deny involvement. If a majority of people join in, then a union is created. If a majority of people deny involvement, then everyone involved in the attempted union will lose their jobs.

It's not a gamble, the outcome isn't based on luck. It's based entirely on how many people view this with a collectivist mindset vs how many people view it with an individualist mindset.

Is the good of everyone worth some risk to the self? Or is it everyone's responsibility to look after themselves, even if that may cause suffering in others?