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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[–] idiomaddict@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

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

On a similar note, I discussed a headline with my husband recently: it’s literally not worth a trillion dollars to be elon musk (paraphrased). He pointed out that it’s enough money that it wouldn’t be about the person choosing anymore- they could redistribute it, fix democracy, order a hit on the most egregious dictators (or host a red wedding).

I would like to believe I could choose the well being of humanity instead of my own emotional stability, but it’s a much harder question than most of these are.

I’m literally already rationalizing to myself that I might make things worse by interfering, just giving people a bunch of cash doesn’t fix everything, and I don’t know if the people who will replace the world’s dictators would be worse. I mean, all of those are true, please don’t give me a trillion dollars, but I also really want to keep my loved ones.