Goddammit this is brilliant in so many ways, and no we are not the ones pulling the lever, in real life trolley problem.
I wanted to come into the comments to gush the same thing! Enthusiastic agree/upvote!
In real life, there is no trolley problem. Because the folks at the top don't give a shit about being ethical.
That's kind of the point, the rich guy will sacrifice the people to get the money, and the rich people are the ones in control.
I mean if you're in the USA many of you are pulling the lever everyday really. It's just that y'all constantly choose not to run over the wealthy and the corrupt in exchange for peace, love, or whatever reason you may have. But the easy access to weaponry does mean you're constantly pulling a lever.
The problem is the green guys have no issues running y'all over daily.
That one deserves a repost in leftymemes!
Them being red and blue is a nice touch
why is the rich man green
Google greenwashing
Somehow I don't think choosing between money and lives is a problem for that guy in any way whatsoever. The fact that the money would probably be salvageable even if the trolley hit it makes it even worse.
Yeah but it would be all scattered around and stuff. Some horrible poor person might try to pick some of it up. We certainly wouldn't want that.
A lot of capitalists regularly make that choice, and they choose money.
Be it warmonger sharks, heads of private militaries and military manufacturers, or, idk, Nestle executives.
Needs a punchline. That last panel is completely pointless and wastes a good setup imo.
The punchline is that the protagonist, in this desperate, confusing moment of panic, finds themselves in the company of a useless buffoon who, although in the same terrifying position, is only capable of "helping" by cheerfully explaining the obvious. An experience we can all relate to on some level, especially if the comic as a whole is read as a metaphor.
I think it's pretty well done.
I agree, the only thing I would add is swap the two. That way the buffoon is technically in a worse position.
I think that's a very generous read, and I just don't see it. The first three panels are well done, but the last adds nothing. It's like someone ending a Little Johnny joke with "and then the teacher sent him to the principal's office" instead of with whatever dirty thing Johnny said that was supposed to be the actual punchline.
I'll be them some day!
"Don't worry, I think he's gonna pull it!"
Worse, you could be the train driver with no control panel
You are in a trolley problem. Everyone is wearing a hat. No one sees their own hat. There are 2 red and 2 blue hats and everyone knows this. The guy to your left is wearing a red hat and the guy to your right has a blue one. The guy at the lever is too far away for you to see if he wears a hat at all and it doesn't really matter since they will no pull the lever no matter what.
What do you do?Happy go lucky guy is fine - they expected it and are just rolling with the punches.:-)
In the USA, the leopard about to get his face eaten off would normally be colored red I believe... :-P
The guy at the lever represents the oil execs and we all know they would rather kill people than sacrifice money.
and we all know they would rather kill people
Sometimes I feel like it’s the new generation memes. Straight from the shelters, getting taste of real life out there and making memes. But then I already knew the world is hell when I was 13 yo.
Adult world was actually less cruel because everyone masks their primal insticts behind a facade of politeness and any violence is passive, systemic. Much easier to cope with in the short term but ultimately maybe more insidious. Money is violence.
only thing wrong with this cartoon is the capitalist is touching a lever. those guys dont do such menial work
True, but the keys of power, the ownership, the control are in the hands of capitalists.
Do you have a pension fund? If so, you are providing force to the levers.
Finally! Sweet release...
Multitrack drifting
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_position
In the original position, you are asked to consider which principles you would select for the basic structure of society, but you must select as if you had no knowledge ahead of time what position you would end up having in that society. This choice is made from behind a "veil of ignorance", which prevents you from knowing your ethnicity, social status, gender and, crucially in Rawls' formulation, your or anyone else's idea of how to lead a good life. Ideally, this would force participants to select principles impartially and rationally.
The original position is designed to be a fair and impartial point of view that is to be adopted in our reasoning about fundamental principles of justice. In taking up this point of view, we are to imagine ourselves in the position of free and equal persons who jointly agree upon and commit themselves to principles of social and political justice for a well-ordered democratic society.
