this post was submitted on 05 Dec 2024
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The assassination of United Healthcare's CEO is a real life trolley problem, and a select few are trying to argue to save all lives while the train is going to kill the masses. (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by moral_quandary@lemmy.world to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
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It appears that in every thread about this event there is someone calling everyone else in the thread sick and twisted for not proclaiming that all lives are sacred and being for the death of one individual.

It really is a real life trolley problem because those individuals are not seeing the deaths caused by the insurance industry and not realizing that sitting back and doing nothing (i.e. not pulling the lever on the train track switch) doesn't save lives...people are going to continue to die if nothing is done.

Taking a moral high ground and stating that all lives matter is still going to costs lives and instead of it being a few CEOs it will be thousands.

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[–] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The idea that punishment works is the concept behind our entire justice system

It's one of the concepts, and that's a big part of why we have so much evidence against it.

[–] AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

On a quick google:

The certainty of being caught is a vastly more powerful deterrent than the punishment. Research shows clearly: If criminals think there's only a slim chance they will be caught, the severity of punishment — even draconian punishment — is an ineffective deterrent to crime

So the more executions, the more effective it is?

[–] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Sounds right, but again with the caveat, what are they being caught for? Being a healthcare executive at all? Some vaguely defined moral threshhold? What is it they are being taught to fear, and how disconnected is that from any actual intention? Like beating a dog to try to get it to stop destroying your furniture. And then consider that certain punishment for them isn't actually realistic unless it's the government imposing it. Vigilantes can't get them all or probably even many of them.

[–] AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago

If anything, China and Russia have shown that having unclear laws and lines are far more effective than clear-cut rules, because when you don't know where the line is, you self-police to a degree more than the state would otherwise do. It doesn't work on dogs because they aren't intelligent enough to understand. It DOES work on humans because we get it.

Vigilantes can’t get them all or probably even many of them.

That would depend on how popular a movement it becomes, hmm? It certainly worked for the IRA.