this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2024
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the joke is that you are actively removing yourself from the situation by making a decision to do nothing. In essence, that track has no trolley on it, and no people on it, meaning nobody dies.... As long as you don't look over your shoulder.
Standing at the lever, close your eyes real hard and wish there was a third choice as you hope someone else makes that choice for you
plug your ears, close your eyes, and yell "I CANT HEAR YOU" repeatedly over and over again.
The real joke is how the "no choice" position is such extreme nonsense that even something as dumbed down as a meme can't make any part of it seem logical.
it's not explicitly nonsense, one of the decisions that you can make in the trolley problem is doing nothing, this is the equivalent of doing nothing in a comedic fashion.
In the same way 'would you rather' is meant to force a decision between two unacceptable choices, the trolly problem is meant to highlight the morality of refusing to choose (and ensuring the worse decision).
The third rail is just redundant.
in a really reductive sense, yes. The trolley problem is at it's heart, a question of whether being involved in an atrocity is better than being uninvolved in an atrocity.
This is the problem with the trolley problem.
If it were replaced with, say, being told to shoot one group or another by a sadistic guard, the possibility of refusing to choose would be more obvious in terms of what it means morally.
The trolley is an inanimate object. It isn't making choices.
Political parties are more like the sadistic guard. They are making choices.