this post was submitted on 07 Nov 2024
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No Stupid Questions

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No such thing. Ask away!

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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?

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

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).

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 weeks ago

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

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

Voting is an individual event

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 weeks ago

This is actually a very good comparison, thank you.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I agree that people should've voted, but I disagree with this one-dimensional line of thinking. I can see the argument that by voting for the democrats their current behaviour and this fucked up system as a whole is warranted. It's not as simple as "why not vote, it costs you nothing". By voting this horrible "democracy" is legitimised and the democrats and the system will not change their approach. The US deserves a democracy that actually allows for representation instead of this duopoly of garbage and more garbage

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Not voting doesn't do anything but make you feel better about yourself. No one in power cares that you didn't vote. They actually love low voter turnout because it's an easier demographic to hit

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

I disagree. The margins seem thin enough that people fed up with either party can absolutely ruin them in the swing states. If you were to disagree with one of the parties, you could absolutely give them a signal by not voting. Preferably such a person would also make very clear why they refuse to vote for a party, because otherwise it's indeed just lazy and empty.

Again, I think that people who do so are shooting themselves (and everyone else) in the foot. But I can see their motivation.