Bathtub Thoughts

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This community is inspired by this post on !showerthoughts@lemmy.world:

We really need a community where you can just post about anything that you’re really passionate about, which you’re currently researching/thinking about, sothat others can learn something about it as well and maybe discuss about it.

This showerthoughts community is a bit like it because you can just post whatever comes to your mind, but i’d like it to be more in-depth and with higher quality. Something like showerthoughts, but bathtubthoughts, i.e. when you’re soaking in a hot bathtub and thinking about stuff for 20 minutes or sth, and then post that. You know what i mean?

Related communities:

!showerthoughts@lemmy.world

!todayilearned@lemmy.ml

!youshouldknow@lemmy.world

!infodump@lemmy.autism.place

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Ask the Genie to Make All the Terrible People Happy (piefed.zip)

submitted 3 weeks ago by SwingingTheLamp@piefed.zip to c/bathtubthoughts@discuss.tchncs.de

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Inspired by a Utilitarian question in another post, it occurred to me that if you found a magic lamp, and the genie offered you a wish, and you wanted to better humanity, your best move is to wish for happiness and contentment for all of the people you hate the most.

It's fear, anger, or outrage that drives discontent, and motivates people to try to change the world around them. If you wish for happiness and contentment for the people you like, e.g. the ones fighting for human rights, for peace, for justice, then that deprives them of their best motivation, and they'll stop fighting.

But if you wish contentment on the evil people—you know who they are—they will also stop striving to change the world, to tear down society, and to arrogate it all for themselves. Like that famous quote, if you wish to grant Musk and Bezos feeling of "enough," they would no longer need to hoard a pile of gold beyond the imaging of the greediest dragon.

I dunno. They don't deserve it, buy the outcome would make the world better for everybody. Could you do it?

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[–] Tiresia@slrpnk.net 12 points 3 weeks ago

Happiness is not a state of having enough, of being done. It's enjoying the way things are going. Even contentment doesn't cause people to stop wanting to be in the state that makes them content. Tell me the Americans in this image look unhappy (NSFL, torture).

Billionaires aren't some alien creature incapable of being happy. It doesn't take active effort for them to accumulate capital, they can just let a team of trustworthy millionaires manage their assets for them. And those millionaires? Many of them genuinely enjoy getting to play with billions of dollars, making big decisions that affect the future, and winning capitalism harder. And cops? Oh boy, another good day to beat up minorities.

Evil is a facet of humanity that is brought to the forefront not because of discontent or unhappiness, but because of systems that reward evil. The sadistic joy of state-sanctioned violence does not require a broken heart.

What I expect would happen if you magically made all the terrible people in the world happy and content is that they would no longer be held back by conscience or cognitive dissonance. They could commit genocide without any regrets; make decisions that kill millions without any pang of guilt. Evil would increase in scope and violence.

If you want to stop evil, change society so evil is no longer rewarded.

Ironically, I do believe everyone deserves happiness, if only their happiness didn't come at the cost of others. I see no point in punishment or deprivation other than as tools to help others.