I will preface my answer by saying that I believe I am fairly liberal and even progressive. I am in favor of my taxes being used to help those less fortunate both domestically and internationally. I donate to causes to support this as well. I work for a public non-profit utility and put in many more hours than I am paid for. I volunteer in the community, and have spent many hours helping out with food drives in my town for over 20 years now. I believe immigrants are a net good, and it is wrong to deport them indiscriminately. I am in favor of vaccines for myself and my loved ones both to protect myself (and my loved ones) as well as contribute to herd immunity for the community—I am not a freeloader on others getting vaccinated.
But at least half of the country doesn’t think that way. They are conservatives who don’t believe in helping others and think it should be every person (or country) for themselves. They don’t get vaccinated because they don’t want to risk the 1-in-a-million chance of an adverse reaction, and instead freeload on others who are vaccinated. (And these people are in charge of the government right now and are cutting and even eliminating many if not all of the programs across the board designed to help others…like USAID and international food aid, or medical and vaccine research.)
I would be foolish to put my life in their hands.
About half of the country is going to select the red button because they are conservatives—and I believe that conservative ideology at its core is based on selfishness.
And some percentage of the moderates and liberals will choose the red button as well, either because they don’t trust the conservatives or they fear there won’t be enough people who will choose the blue button. So I’m not at all surprised that the polls reported in the OP show that about 60% of people say they would choose the red button.
And so while my immediate first inclination was of course to select the blue button, I think that is all but guaranteed to result in my death. So I think I have no choice but to either not play the game at all—if that is an option—or if not, to select the red button and tell all my friends and loved ones to do the same thing.
In its most basic sense, everyone capable of rational thought is responsible to keep themselves alive. It might help the world and the environment if there were fewer people, but that doesn’t mean I want to commit suicide.
And lastly, I would rationalize my decision by noting that I didn’t create this game. I was forced to play it (if opting out is impossible), just like I am forced to live in this world. I would never intentionally wish for someone else’s death.