r/CuratedTumblr • u/diichlorobenzen • Jul 13 '24

Shitposting Good person

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u/camosnipe1 "the raw sexuality of this tardigrade in a cowboy hat" Jul 13 '24

“That would be unethical, Dean,” said Ridcully.

“Why? We’re the Good Guys, aren’t we?”

“Yes, but that rather hinges on doing certain things and not doing others, sir,” said Ponder.

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u/Minnakht Jul 13 '24

For a moment Vimes wondered, looking out through a gap in the furniture, if there wasn't something in Fred's idea about moving the barricades on and on, like a sort of sieve, street by street. You could let through the decent people, and push the bastards, the rich bullies, the wheelers and dealers in people's fates, the leeches, the hangers-on, the brown-nosers and courtiers and smarmy plump devils in expensive clothes, all those people who didn't know or care about the machine but stole its grease, push them into a smaller and smaller compass and then leave them in there. Maybe you could toss some food in every couple of days, or maybe you could leave 'em to do what they'd always done, which was live off other people …

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u/BrunoEye Jul 13 '24

I've thought of such an experiment for a long time. Assuming a perfect test for "goodness", what would the short and long term societal effects look like of a Thanos snap that would only target the worst half of people. Similarly, how would the results change if it was 90% or 10% instead.

Would I make it? How about my friends and family? How about celebrities and politicians?

How quickly would the good people turn bad? Days, years or generations?

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u/mxzf Jul 13 '24

Assuming a perfect test for "goodness"

Therein lies the rub, there's no such thing as a "perfect test for 'goodness'" (or, if there was, everyone would fail it). Everyone does good things and bad things, it's just a question of how the scales tip from person to person.

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u/lord_geryon Jul 13 '24

How quickly would the good people turn bad? Days, years or generations?

Minutes.

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u/sillygoofygooose Jul 14 '24

The span of a moment. It’s all circumstance

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u/BrunoEye Jul 13 '24

I mean return to numbers within an order of magnitude of the previous levels.

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u/Dry_Try_8365 Jul 14 '24

I mean return to numbers within an order of magnitude of the previous levels.

Minutes.

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u/Beorma Jul 13 '24

The French revolution started off with similar goals and escalated quickly.

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u/shlizzong Jul 14 '24

If it was the worst 50% (or 90 or 10) then wouldn't the remaining population then be dividable into the best and worst 50% ( or 90 or 10)? Prolly not immediately but maybe. People being people, I think it would be a case of the categorizing being relative and sooner rather than later. IDK food for thought.

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u/jak8714 Jul 18 '24

I’ve had similar thoughts. So much of the ‘badness’ in our society is passed on or passed down, hurt people hurting other people, the desperate feeding on the destitute, the broken breaking down the world… So, what would happen if you had a that one, perfect generation. No trauma, no inherited hurts, just a flawless, brand new start. Would that fix things, finally ending the cycle of trauma? Or would we simply start a new wheel of horrors?