Which sounds like gloating from people who saw all the people tied to one set of tracks and used it as an excuse to tie that one guy to the other track.
And that is NOT how the trolley problem works. None of us tied anyone to the tracks. There’s no one else. There’s just people on the tracks, and a trolley, and a lever, and you. All of the set-up happened before you got there. You are only able to make a decision about the lever.
That’s because it’s an abstract thought experiment. Here in concrete reality, Democratic politicians are willingly selling weapons to a genocidal apartheid regime, and refuse to stop. They could untie the guy any time they want, but are super worried that the guys who tied everyone else to the other set of tracks might not like them.
Doesn’t matter. All YOU can do is pull the lever, or not. You can’t change who’s on the track. You can’t remove the trolley. You can’t untie the people or lift up the tracks. In this sense, the trolley problem is almost a 1-for-1 representation of voting (in a swing state, at least). You can pull the lever, or not. Those are your options.
Yes…that’s the point of the trolley problem. Someone does get crushed.
The crushing is the point, yes.
And you get to pick how much crushing happens.
Which sounds like gloating from people who saw all the people tied to one set of tracks and used it as an excuse to tie that one guy to the other track.
And that is NOT how the trolley problem works. None of us tied anyone to the tracks. There’s no one else. There’s just people on the tracks, and a trolley, and a lever, and you. All of the set-up happened before you got there. You are only able to make a decision about the lever.
That’s because it’s an abstract thought experiment. Here in concrete reality, Democratic politicians are willingly selling weapons to a genocidal apartheid regime, and refuse to stop. They could untie the guy any time they want, but are super worried that the guys who tied everyone else to the other set of tracks might not like them.
Doesn’t matter. All YOU can do is pull the lever, or not. You can’t change who’s on the track. You can’t remove the trolley. You can’t untie the people or lift up the tracks. In this sense, the trolley problem is almost a 1-for-1 representation of voting (in a swing state, at least). You can pull the lever, or not. Those are your options.
To people who get what they want no matter the state of the lever.
I voted for Harris. I’m not going to proclaim that your genocide is the moral genocide just because you demand that I do.
So you pulled the lever. End of thought experiment.
Yay! You made it!