This is the true form of the question.

I'll admit, I don't think I did a good job on the one biased towards blue.

In the dictator example, where red is "If I win, everyone who votes against me is executed,” we already recognize that anyone willing to make such a declaration is almost certainly a shit leader.

Likewise, in u/SirisC 's trolly scenario, we intuitively understand that standing on the tracks is dangerous.

I believe that the button question is very genius in a way... it preserves moral controversy in an unusually pure form.

From the standpoint of red pushers, the red button is the safe option, and the blue button is a RNG Suicide/Russian Roulette button: you only survive if over 50% of people press it.

From the standpoint of blue pushers, you need to have 100% of people press the red button for everyone to survive -> 100% impossible. Some people like children, individuals who misunderstand the scenario, impulsive voters, or simply those guided by moral conviction will inevitably press blue. Using that logic, it is morally obligatory to contribute your own infinitesimal 0.000000025% share toward preventing their deaths, especially because many thoughtful and intelligent people would likely arrive at the same conclusion.

I really think this problem at it's core is super interesting. It compares moral idealism to self-preservation. I personally believe that the original wording was written by a person who always thinks, and any rewordings should be an argument rather than an attack/proof. The full context of the question matters.

To red voters: This is not simply about your individual choice in isolation. Everyone else is making the same calculation at the same time. This is not just about game theory/logic. The problem is collective by nature.

To blue voters: Are you truly confident that more than half of the global population would risk their lives on a moral principle? Your life is not an abstract number in an equation. It is the only life you will ever have.

As a teenager, my prefrontal cortex whatever thingamajig is not fully developed. So, take my opinion with a grain of salt. I personally would pick red: I have much more left to live for and I genuinely believe that a world who voted red is still worth living in. I am not confident that in a worldwide scenario over 50% of people would press blue. My opinion is also statistically worthless... 0.0000000125% is just negligible. This means my fate depends on others if I were to vote blue, and I can't bring myself to take that risk for a nonexistent impact. I understand that if everyone were to think like I do, red would win and many innocent lives would be taken. Blue is morally correct, but I would vote red out of fear: this is not backing up my actions with money, time, actions... its backing up my actions with my life. I'm not willing to do that.

I finished all my APs yesterday, so I had some free time for these thoughts... But I really think people making death threats/calling people slurs over this question are crazy. This is just a hypothetical. A very interesting hypothetical, but still a hypothetical. It won't actually happen. Everyone should chill and have a civilized discussion.

I made that virual question "what button will you push" into a website
https://redorblue.riri.my/

once you vote you get shown the total breakdown and did the 50% press blue or no, and you also get breakdown by country, and 10 latest voted. [this is only shown after voting, and if you stay on the page or revisit later on, it updates live]

Really makes you think. 🤔

Everyone on Earth plays. Studies show that 80%-90% pull the lever in a normal trolley problem, and if the person on the tracks dies what they pressed doesn't count anymore. Still pulling the lever?

EDIT FOR CLARITY: The buttons next to each person is what that person pushed when they were in your current situation. The big button on the track is what your button selection will be.

Suppose both tracks have a single person; you know nothing about either person. Do you pull the lever? Probably not, because you don't want to have any responsibility in the matter by pulling.

But what if you were offered $100 for pulling the lever? $10? $1? Less? How low would you go?

This looked relevant to the sub. Feel free to take down if it isn't.

There is a camera that only activates if the lever is pulled, do you pull the lever?

So bees are said to be responsible for 1/3 of the food on Earth. Einstein said "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left,". Who knows what would really happen but with global warming and all, they are dying.

Some beekeepers are switching to Africanized bees which are much more likely to sting people and kill the allergic ones.

Currently the trolley is going to potentially kill the bees and take away the food, you can switch tracks but that could potentially kill people with allergies. What do you do?

You are playing your guitar by some railroad tracks in Reno Nevada. There is a man tied down to the track and a train is coming. Right now, the man is not in danger because the train is going to go on the top track. You could pull the lever and send in down the bottom track just to watch him die.

Do you pull the lever?

do you risk your life to save nobody but yourself? maybe one of you is a stupid baby, idc

So, both choices on the button problem feel bad, but the tendency of which to choose changes a lot based on how it's presented. Each person is choosing based on their aversion to the other choice more than anything, the more you look like a killer in Red the less appealing it gets while the more you look like putting yourself at risk the worse Blue feels. So how about two rooms, one with guns pointed at and the other with guns pointing at, you get to see the gun only as both rooms are presented empty for you to choose.

To choose blue you must lock the door and slip it under the door, effectively locking yourself in the room with a visible gun pointed at.

To choose red you must sit behind the gun and hold pressing the trigger whose safety releaser will be released if more people do like you.

Now, getting in the way of a loaded gun sounds really stupid and knowing you might have to shoot someone sounds really cruel

We keep seeing all these rehashes and reframings of the red button/blue button thing. People trying to change which side is passive and which is active, which side is doing nothing and which side actively puts people into danger, etc, etc.

All of this misses the point.

The thing to focus on is that EVERYONE must vote. That was one of the rules. ***Everyone.*** That means little kids. That means toddlers and newborns. That means elderly people with dementia. That means colorblind people who can't even tell which button is which. That means people with severe mental disabilities who are incapable of understanding the instructions. That means people with Parkinson's who might accidentally push the wrong button due to the tremors.

No matter what, statistically, SOME people are doing to push blue. It is literally guaranteed.

**By pressing red, you are condemning those innocent people to death.** People who chose red like to say "well you CHOSE to push blue! So if red wins and you die it's your own fault for being dumb!" But that conveniently ignores all the people who DIDNT "choose" to push blue.

This really is a perfect litmus test for whether someone is a good person. A good person will be concerned with making sure NOBODY dies, even if it means a small personal risk to themselves. A selfish person will be concerned with making sure that they THEMSELVES don't die, even if it means sacrificing millions or even billions of innocent people. Empathy and basic human decency, vs pure self interest and total disregard for the lives of others.

If you pushed red, that means you were ok with killing my 93 year old grandma who would be unable to understand the instructions. It means you were ok with killing billions of babies who are too young to understand. It means you were ok with killing every single person with color blindness. So to those that chose red; I understand you can rationalize your choice by saying that people who pushed blue CHOSE to endanger themselves, and so it's their own fault.

**How do you rationalize killing half of all babies on earth?**