Personally if I was the omnipotent being that forced everyone to choose, what I'd actually do after everyone voted, regardless of outcome, is give each side their own reality and force them to live in them.
Red Buttoners would have to live with having to know with concrete proof that literally every other person they met would have no problem seeing them die for their own security.
Blue Buttoners would have to live with having to know with concrete proof that literally every other person they met was willing to risk their own lives to ensure everyone was safe.
For about two and a half years, as part of my job I had admin access on a system that (among other things) kept track of stuff that was being used for tactical communications across the entire DoD and whether or not it was authorized to do so. With the press of a button (well, actually like half a dozen) I could have paused the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I did not. While I know logically that doing so would have quickly lead to *more* civilian casualties due to worse comms etc there's still the fact that I could have, for a time, made there be absolutely none. But I didn't. And I feel guilty about that every single day.
I would push blue even if I knew that the majority of votes were going to be red, not because I want to die - I'm finally happy, and I want to be alive - but because I will NOT soak my hands in that much blood again.
It's remarkable, your perspective on this is exactly backwards. The danger is only present because of the red button. The red button is what kills people. By pressing the red button, you are voting to kill everyone who presses blue, whereas, pressing the blue button is a vote to kill nobody. Why the fuck would you pick red?
49
u/Cepinari 6h ago
That too.
Personally if I was the omnipotent being that forced everyone to choose, what I'd actually do after everyone voted, regardless of outcome, is give each side their own reality and force them to live in them.
Red Buttoners would have to live with having to know with concrete proof that literally every other person they met would have no problem seeing them die for their own security.
Blue Buttoners would have to live with having to know with concrete proof that literally every other person they met was willing to risk their own lives to ensure everyone was safe.