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Of Trolleys and Tanks
New Mount Carmel Center during the FBI assault on the Branch Davidian complex in Waco, TX.
There are five people tied to the tracks of an unstoppable, runaway trolley. Their death is imminent. However, in your hand is a switch. If you flip that switch, then the trolley is diverted down a different track, away from those five people… and down a track onto which one person is tied. Death is certain no matter what you do. Flip that switch and you have actively assented to the death of a fellow human being. Do nothing and you have passively assented to the death of five fellow human beings. What do you do?
The Trolley Problem is a thought experiment that is often introduced in college freshman classes on ethics. Many people are familiar with the problem and its point: There are some situations without fully ethical solutions. One decision is just as ethically questionable as the other, and each decision is ultimately and solely based on the decision maker’s own principles. However, the Trolley Problem suffers as a thought experiment because it lacks context. It is very easy to imagine how one would behave in a no-win situation when that situation remains a safe and detached theoretical. Unfortunately, we no longer have such a luxury.
Never before have I experienced a dilemma which maps so readily to the Trolley Problem as this year’s presidential race. There are only two possible outcomes: Clinton is our next president or Trump is. And individual people, based upon their personal principles, find one or the other outcome to be morally repugnant. In this Trolley Problem, the #NeverTrump position, either through abstaining, writing-in, or voting third party, is that of passively assenting to Clinton, while the #NeverHillary position is that of actively assenting to Trump. As with any Trolley Problem, neither position can claim to be more ethical than the other.
As I have stated before and often, my personal position is #NeverSoros, which currently places me in the #NeverHillary camp. As such, I would like to make an honest and respectful appeal to the people of #NeverTrump and to their principles. In doing so, I must add some context to our shared Trolley Problem.
This particular bit of context must be added because I expect that it hasn’t been added already. The reason I expect so is because the context is pitch dark. It is a source of deep national shame. It is a stain on our history so horrific that few choose to look at it. I doubt that it is taught in our schools. I doubt further that Millennials have even heard of it. We don’t talk about it, because it’s easier. We dismiss those who mention it as fringe, because it’s too unsettling. But it is there. And, God help me, I’m putting it on the table.
Sixteen years is a long time, a long enough time to forget the horror show that was the Clinton regime. It would be easy to mention mundane outrages such as the Clinton’s looting of the White House and their administration’s trashing of it on their way out the door, or even their tacit admission to corruption with their Soprano’s video spoof. But such mundane outrages rise only to the level of vulgar, a word that is often cited in arguments against Trump. But, for all of his bluster and showmanship, for all of his vulgar coarseness, let me remind you of some things that Trump never did.
Donald Trump never served as a high ranking official – a so-called Co-President – in an administration which rolled military tanks on an American civilian population. He never served in an administration which forced a protracted stand-off which ended with a community in ashes and the majority of its population, including the majority of its children, dead. He never served in an administration which did all this and then claimed that it was done to protect those very same children. He never served in an administration in which, afterward, no one, to my knowledge, was held to account for one of the worst law enforcement tactical blunders in American history. He never served in an administration which, instead of granting due process to the most deplorable of Americans, granted overwhelming, terrifying, military force.
Hillary Clinton did.
We treat Islamic terrorists better.
In a recent email leaked by Wikileaks, John Podesta claimed that Hillary Clinton, “has begun to hate everyday Americans.” Hillary herself has called Trump supporters “deplorable” and “irredeemable.” These everyday Americans, these deplorables and irredeemables are your neighbors, your friends, your family, and given Hillary’s “vast right-wing conspiracy” rhetoric, maybe even you yourself in the #NeverTrump camp.
The 2016 election trolley can not be stopped from rolling. But, #NeverTrump-ers, perhaps something a great deal more terrifying can be. Consult your principles. I will respect your choice. The switch is in your hands.
Published in General
Yeah. They don’t talk about that one in China, either.
No, Rick, I didn’t miss the point. I recognized the picture, and simply wondered to what you were referring.
I had forgotten about Waco, though.
But in fairness to the devil, I don’t think you can lay that one on Hillary. I think she was too busy trying to fix American health care to have had any input to the Waco decisions.
More and more the recent posts or comments about the election see it as a trolley problem. We seem about evenly split as to assigning Trump & Hillary to the different tracks: Never Hillary vs Never Trump. Don’t recall seeing any simply Pro Hillary or simply Pro Trump posts or comments, at least not recently.
And you’re right about Waco: a disgrace, but forgotten. Or maybe just crowded out of consciousness by more recent disgraces (VA, FBI “investigation”).
No, he has not. But he did praise the strength of the Chinese government when they rolled those tanks into Tiananmen Square, while trying to toe a line between complimenting their strength & not endorsing their actions. He’s already shown he sees actions like this as signs of strength, not tyranny.
There are many people who believe that the order for the final siege came directly from her.
Again, one has said something stupid, the other was involved in an administration which rolled tanks on an American civilian population.
When the fire in the Branch Davidian compound began, (there is substantial debate over the source of the fire, and some have posited that the use of smoke grenades may have sparked it but more likely it was started by the Branch Davidians themselves) many of the victims who attempted to flee were shot in the back by those inside of the compound.
Ultimately, Koresh himself was likely killed by his top aide who then turned the gun on himself.
The FBI could have nabbed Koresh at any point when he went into town but for some reason decided not to and the raid turned into a fiasco.
Yes, this entire situation was a black mark on both the FBI and the Clinton Administration, but the justification underlying it was legitimate given the number of weapons at the compound.
Churches and guns. Sweet mixture.
Waco was frightening, no doubt. The episode I recall as particularly chilling however, was the scene of battering rams at the door while little Elian Gonzalez hid in the closet.
This is true. But “from the overflow of the mouth, the heart speaks”.
Thank you, Judge Mental. From the mouth of babes…
Many agree with you including me – but I think about the long term – a presidency is not a one person show. Judges appointed for the long term, decisions on healthcare, infrastructure, economy, education including morals and values, inner city turmoil, foreign policy, freedom of speech and religion: all of these things have become worse under Obama/Clinton as SoS. Four years of same or worse will yield an unrecognizable country – with our Constitution being compromised. Interesting how so many foreigners are weighing in who know what we have is worth preserving.
I’ve had many conversations that attempted to sway my opinion on what I will do in November & the argument I hear time & again is “we know what she will do, but we don’t know about him”. And I absolutely agree with this. But that is precisely my point. I’ve seen nothing from him that leads me to believe he will be any better than her when it comes to many of these issues. We’ve all seen him change opinions with the wind throughout this election season & it leads me to feel like I cannot trust him with anything, especially the issues that will affect me & my family long term.
To reach out to NeverTrumpers at this point is a wasted effort, their arguments are irrational and they won’t listen to reason.
But they have their principals you see….
Huh? I haven’t read the comments yet so someone may have already pointed this out. Many Trolley problems do have a correct ethical answer. It’s true that you can create one that is so ambiguous that the answer is not obvious, but that’s not what Trolly problems are for. They’re for doing “high energy ethics.”
For instance, the answer to the classic Trolley problem that you outlined is you should flip the switch.
It’s funny how Trump supporters believe having principles is an insult.
You never heard the phrase “Praise God and pass the ammunition?”
Not to mention that the spread in the polls is so large that the odds of having any effect on the race dwarves the perpetual sense of debasement that would accompany affirmatively voting for someone so objectively wrong.
Number of guns owned by churches I have attended: 0.
Ahh, how sweet of you. It’s compliments like this that keep expanding the Trump movement.
Oh, and by the way, I don’t have a principal. I haven’t had one since I graduated high school. Do you have any more to sell?
Trump has no respect for our institutions or our people, and could do worse than Waco if someone insulted him enough on Twitter.
Every time I think of him taking control of our nuclear arsenal, I am reminded that this is the same man who has not let go of a 30 year old quip about the size of his hands. Imagine what he would do if he were President & received the same level of criticism that most presidents do.
I don’t agree with your points here, Rick. Trump could not have done those things because he’s never run for office. Who knows what he will do in the future? He is fearless and stubborn and in many ways as unprincipled as Hillary. I don’t think he’ll have any problem doing–or at least trying to do–whatever he wants. I don’t know that Hillary would have an easier time.
Waco siege-Down the memory hole. How dare you show those pictures.
Elian Gonzalez taken at gunpoint-Down the memory hole. How dare you show those pictures.
Planes hitting the World Trade Center-Down the memory hole. How dare you show those pictures.
Why are some Americans upset? It’s a mystery.
Doesn’t the Trolley Problem only apply to people with agency? As in, the assumption is that you in the train actually have the ability to switch the track to kill one person instead of five people. I don’t think this assumption holds outside of swing states.
So, here’s a follow up question: Why should someone actively assent to killing one innocent person when they know with certainty that their assent will not change the fact that the train will kill five different people?
I was thinking about your trolley in a slightly different context. Say there is an explosive device on the trolley set to detonate upon impact. On one track there are 120 million people (these numbers are just wild guesses) all over age 65. On the other track are say 50 million people all under 40. Do you blast the 120 million by cutting Social Security so the 50 million don’t pay into a system from which they will not benefit or do you leave the unsustainable system as is and blast the young? Of course this conundrum pales to insignificance compared to groping women on planes.
Thanks.
Nonsense.
By voting for Trump you are voting for Hillary Clinton, preventing Gary Johnson from winning.
That is the problem with the example given.
I don’t work for the railroad, and am untrained in correct railroad operations. D’you want me to get sued?!?!
Which is why I consider it one of the worst law enforcement tactical blunders in American history.
Both churches and guns are Constitutionally protected – for whatever that’s worth now-a-days.
Another one of “The Clinton’s Greatest Hits.”