And I’m being serious. I feel like there might be an argument there, I just don’t understand it. Can someone please “steelman” that argument for me?

  • huquad@lemmy.ml
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    5 days ago

    It’s the trolley problem. You see a trolley about to kill 5 people. You can pull a lever (vote) and make the trolley only kill 1. In this case, that 1 person is also in the lineup of 5. This distinction makes it obvious the only option is to pull the lever (vote).

    • Cyrus Draegur@lemm.ee
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      5 days ago

      They mistakenly believe that by pulling the lever they are complicit in the trolley. That by interacting with the trolley on the trolley’s terms, they are consenting to the trolley’s actions.

      I used to believe that too once… Once.

      I was disabused of that notion before 2012, but sadly not enough people were.

      • huquad@lemmy.ml
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        5 days ago

        Inaction is also an action. You’re always playing the game, might as well learn the rules.

    • just_an_average_joe@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      5 days ago

      No it’s not. Both the trolley problem and the prisoners dilemma are individual event thought experiments.

      Real life is different, it is continuous. The rational choice for an individual event can be very different than a continuous one.

      Take the prisoner’s dilemma (or game theory) for instance, it is the rational decision (nash equilibrium) to rat your fellow prisoner out but if you have to do it again and again, then the best strategy is to NOT rat out your fellow prisoner (only rat when they ratted you out in the last round).

      Reality is often like this, and elections are also like this. It gets complicated real fast.