Lesser Evil

[aleteoryx]

Edit as of Biden finally being gone!

Vote for Kamala.

Fair warning:

• This is mostly gonna be an angry rant from yours truly.
• While I am focusing on US elections, my point holds for other topics.
• If you've got some form of survivor's guilt, you might want to sit this one out.
• Given the state of things, if the Dems elect a new candidate, assume this article was written about them.

With all that being said, let's talk about lesser evils.

The Trolley Problem

For years, I misunderstood the trolley problem. Rather, I did not see the significance. In one case, 5 people die, in the other case, just the 1 does. Obviously, you go with the case where only 1 dies. 5 people are saved from imminent death. What could be complicated about that?

I have since discovered that the difficulty here, for some, is one of framing. Some people cannot bear to be the one to throw the switch. To them, throwing the switch is acting to kill one person, and that makes them a murderer. To them, their inaction makes them innocent.

You may be one such individual, dear reader! You may think this way! Do know, if you are, that I am talking to you specifically when I say: You are selfish.

Self-image

This framing of saving 5 people as murder only works if inaction is framed as "minding your own business". It only works if, by doing nothing, one assumes irrelevancy. That's not how it works.

There's a refrain that's been popular recently. That the solution to the trolley problem is to, "Stop that guy who keeps tying people to trolley tracks." It's clever, but it's naive. In the real world, sometimes the guy is just too good. There are times where the only way to stop the bad thing is to cause a different bad thing.

Inaction is an oxymoron. Being a physical thing in time means you are always acting. Even the ground beneath you is undergoing constant heat transfers. You can't not do something. Inaction is not "minding your own business," it is a deliberate choice to do fucking nothing. By choosing a course of action where you do not prevent something, you become a second cause for it to happen. You become a murderer of 5 instead of 1.

Obviously, were anyone really in the trolley problem, a number of complications could arise. You could freeze, hesitate, panic, etc. There are a number of ways one's behavior could be involuntarily limited in crisis. To anyone with survivor's guilt, I am not talking to you.

As for what I am talking about,

Joe Biden, the Titular Lesser Evil

If you are not explicitly aligned with Donald J. Trump, you have a moral duty to vote for Joe Biden.

I don't like this. I dont like that this is the case. I dont like that the Best Available Option is a cop-loving israel-supporting half-senile bastard. I have even been known to hate it, but I understand the situation. There is no way to keep Trump out for 4 more years but to get someone to have more electoral votes, and there is no realistic way to do that but to back Biden.

This is not about Joe Biden.

This is not even about the Dems.

This is about praying for the death of Donald Trump to come soon and making sure he can't do shit before then. This is about keeping my rights, and the rights of my friends. The rights of my fucking mother.

How self-centered do you have to be to think of it any other way? "Ohhhh I could never vote for Biden because XYZ :/" Suck It Up. The world is shit, and you will die if you cannot bear to pick the lesser evil. If you are gay or trans or queer or bi or whatever else, you may get yourself killed. You're not choosing to not support Biden, you are choosing not to stop Trump.

If you can have that on your conscience, you need to go ask yourself why that is. Why you care so much more about your self-image than anyone else. Why you can live with being so overwhelmingly selfish and self-centered, and yet can't bear to do anything else.

Figure it out soon, and fix it.

Edit in light of the events of June 27th

Oh my god suck it up. Yes, Biden is senile. Suck it up. Let him get elected, at the worst chances are that Harris will 25th his ass, and at absolute worst he croaks in office. In either case, we get a black woman president and don't actually have to deal with Biden. He is bringing with him an administration that has been generally positive, especially compared to Trump. We can expect more strong anti-trust legislation, for one, even if nobody's home in Biden's head.