• Ultraviolet@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    36
    arrow-down
    9
    ·
    1 year ago

    It’s the trolley problem again. This time, you have 3 tracks and 2 switches. The trolley is headed towards 5 people, one switch sends it to 1 person, and the other switch would send it to 0 people, but it’s broken. Voting third party is pulling the broken switch, knowing the 5 people will die but you’ve shifted the responsibility from yourself to whoever was supposed to fix the switch.

    • Hadriscus@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      1 year ago

      Excellent analogy. If anyone still plays dumb after reading this, they probably are

    • OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      arrow-down
      8
      ·
      1 year ago

      I like your analogy. Let me expand.

      This same situation happens every day. For years now, 1 person has died every day. Nobody pulls the broken lever, but if people started pulling it, it would start working. For the first couple days or weeks, 5 people would die each time, but eventually we would be able to get the train on a safe track.

      • just_an_average_joe@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        The whole post is an example of a propaganda technique where you keep repeating one thing over and over until it becomes a default thing where people don’t even question the logic.

        The ones capable of refuting it feel tired because of the sheer number of posts while the vulnerable ones get affected.

        Today both sides “feel” that the use of this propaganda is fair game cuz the other side is already doing it.

    • BallsandBayonets@lemmings.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      I really like your take on this. So how is the switch going to get fixed, when the only time anyone pays attention to the fact that it’s broken, is when lives are on the line?

    • Cleggory@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      arrow-down
      27
      ·
      1 year ago

      Why do neoliberals bring up the trolley problem as if it is some settled debate among scholars that there is one clear possible answer?

      • Ultraviolet@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        29
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        1 year ago

        I’m not a neoliberal, I’m a socialist. I’m just not an idiot who will give a fascist free rein just because his opponent has the same shitty foreign policy as every politician in the whole fucking country has. There is a difference between the status-quo level of bad and catastrophic.

      • luciferofastora@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Edit: I think my point was too subtle. What I meant was that it seems like lefties will bicker and infight rather than focusing on the bigger enemy first, until that enemy manages to seize power and it’s too late. We’ll be “united” in that we’ll be executed together.


        Sometimes, I wonder if a Trump victory would be the only way to get the various leftist factions to stop arguing and stand together, side by side, united in the fact that fascists don’t care what flavour of ideological opposition they’re executing.

        Who gives a shit about whether the Trolley Problem is settled - it’s about your answer: Which option do you endorse?

              • luciferofastora@lemmy.zip
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                6
                ·
                1 year ago

                I think my point was made poorly: I don’t think they’ll work together. He has gone fully mask off now, I worry he might pull a Reichstagsbrand 2 and start eliminating his opponents. And no matter how fractured we may be, no matter how we see our differences, at the end of they day we’re all leftists and to him, that’ll be enough to lump us all together as enemies.

                I worry that the only way the leftists will unite is by being thrown into the same mass graves.

              • luciferofastora@lemmy.zip
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                2
                arrow-down
                2
                ·
                1 year ago

                Look, my point is that he’ll probably be even worse this time around if he gets the chance. I’m painting a (hopefully exaggerated) image in an attempt to convince people that the left should unite on the big issues and push for a point where actually progressive parties are more than a spoiler in a fucked up system.

        • OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          7
          arrow-down
          5
          ·
          1 year ago

          As a center-leftist supporting third party candidates (Go Claudia de la Cruz!), no a Trump victory won’t unite the left, because a Trump victory won’t make me like the Democrats more than I do now. If the Democrats want my vote, they will have to start appealing to me as a voter (stop supporting Israels war, reduce military spending, etc)- but the Democrats don’t have these policies and a Trump victory won’t change that.

          Tl;dr a Trump victory changes nothing for my stance as a third party supporter

          • luciferofastora@lemmy.zip
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            10
            arrow-down
            4
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            You missed my point. If Trump manages to pull off what he literally and explicitly endorses, we’ll land in the same grave together and be united that way. He has praised Hitler. You know, the guy who used a fire to suspend civil rights and persecute political opponents.

            Support progressive politics in local elections, but right now, damage control is the strategic option.

            Put differently, is “protect civil rights” not an issue on your ballot?

        • Hadriscus@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Some people say this out of desperation about the french left : what if we had five years of Le Pen, wouldn’t that consolidate the left? Well, perhaps. Should we try something else first? Probably

          • luciferofastora@lemmy.zip
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            Yeah, that was actually my point, but it was phrased poorly: Trump talks about sending the military against citizens. If he gets his way, we’ll stand sideby side - in front of the firing squads.

      • null@slrpnk.net
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        6
        ·
        1 year ago

        The trolley problem isn’t “settled debate” for the same reasons that Kamala vs Trump isn’t “settled debate”.

        The point of the trolley problem and why it’s analogous is that it’s coming up fast and you must choose to either pull that lever or not. Whichever choice you make, that’s the moral character you’ve chosen to exhibit.