IDK, I think the genie would just make them happy to be assholes.
this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2026
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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?
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The monkey's paw would totally do that.
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.
I think you would also need to wish them be emotionally and interpersonally healthy
I think many of those people's dissatisfaction may be rooted in some deeper issues that without fixing, you would just get more dysfunction.
But if I understood it would fix the suffering, I would do it in a heartbeat. I don't want retribution, I want a better life for the people I love and the people who come after us.
End the retaliatory carceral "justice" mentality- Kill the cop in your mind.
There are times where justice and retribution may look the same, but it is not all times. When you have the ability to right the wrongs rather than create more suffering, choose righting the wrongs.
That is a wonderful thought. Thank you!
Thank you for the kind words my friend :)
Hope you have a lovely day ☺️
Hmm, good thought, but personally I'd just wish for them to be sent to The Torment Nexus for all eternity.
I've came up with a wish during some day dreaming to give every human a perfect replicator. Food, resources, even the replicator itself could be copied. Completely flips power dynamics, remove leverage that awful people have on everyone.
Incidentally, that is kind of Thomas Jefferson's ideal. He envisioned a United States of yeoman farmers, each family having a plot of land, and being self-sufficient. If politics or the government got too onerous, they could choose to withdraw to their own land, and thereby withdraw consent to be governed in that manner.
It was a pipe dream, because the majority of Americans lived in cities, even then. But a replicator, now that's a different story...
Thomas Jefferson the slave owner wanted that fur white, monied men.
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.
If it's a whole-ass genie, and I can do anything, probably I'd wish for some sort of reality sharding. All the conservatives can go to their own private server. Every ten years someone can ask for a server transfer.
I do think that most of the evil in the world is caused by fear, which results in unhappiness and anger. Making the evil people happy would probably "fix" a lot of them. The main problem would be the people who would have been fine if they'd been happy initially, but are now too steeped in hatred to change. Well, them plus the genuine sociopaths.
Temporary fix. Ask genie to make everyone want free, quality, comprehensive health (including mental, duh) for everyone, especially themselves.