Unknowingly Knowing

I want to emphasize that I don’t think this experiment reflects morality. I don’t think red or blue represent some Kantian ethical imperative and that someone is bad for choosing one or the other. Hell, I think there’s a right choice, but in the moment, I don’t know if I could choose it. Moreso I think this experiment shows the ways in which individualism vs collectivism function in the public subconscious.

TikTok is VERY split on this one. I would say it’s around 50/50, but red is a VERY vocal group. Their insistence is that people who would press the blue button are irresponsible, and they shouldn’t need to needlessly endanger their own life to press the blue button to save people too stupid to not press the red button. Meanwhile, people who would press the blue button argue that it’s impossible to get 100% of people to press red, that 50% is a much more reasonable goal, and that people who would press red are engendering eugenics rhetoric. From that write up it’s probably pretty clear where I stand.

people have tried reframing it over and over to get others to understand their positions. However what it comes back to is that people who would press the red button believe they are not actually killing anyone, blue button pushers are just pointlessly killing themselves. Meanwhile blue button pushers argue that pressing red is deliberately causing harm because they know people WILL press the blue button, and therefore are willing to actively cause harm to save themselves.

it’s a complex topic I think, but mostly what’s been interesting is seeing a phenomenon of what I believe is guilt over pressing red and making justifications to convince themselves that blue was an objectively wrong choice and they are superior. Blue people are not lashing out in this way against team red, merely advocating for communalism and understanding and the occasional insult about amorality. But mostly it is an army of people I think feel bad, don’t like that they feel bad, and then do their utmost to make sure it’s everyone else’s fault and I think that speaks to the cultural mentality of individualism that dominates the sociopolitical climate right now.