Hey Skald, a suggestion. Apply for a job writing “Keep it 100” questions for The Nightly Show.
Bob can’t travel through time. That’s a story breaker power.
I don’t know what that is.
The “Nightly Show” is the new show in the timeslot of the “Colbert Report.” (now the lineup is “Daily Show” then “Nightly Show” - get it?)
Larry Wilmore leads a Politically Incorrect-style discussion about some issue, and ends with each guest having to answer a very tough question (usually a dilemma) written specifically for them. Their task is to “keep it 100” (etymology - “keep it 100% real”) in the face thereof.
You took my answer!
I was going the math route too.
But the evil skald lied to you, the bomb is actually 20 feet below you and not in india.
Declan
Yeah with the “5% suicide” rate in, the hypothetical is a dumb discussion as math demonstrates more lives saved stopping the ray. No duh what the choice should be. Boring.
At the risk of fighting the hypothetical how about eliminating that proviso?
If no longer gay there is no reason to assume 5% will become so miserable to suddenly find themselves attracted to another gender. Having to adjust? Sure.
Turn the hypothetical around some - it makes straights all gay while allowing by some new something for reproduction to easily and inexpensively continue (society continues). Yes, many marriages get disrupted but that would be happening to many and people have support and develop new partnerships often in short order. Some decide to stay partnered out of loyalty and either go open in sexuality or go without sex. Some marrieds do both already! No reason to assume mass depression let alone suicide. I’d go for making all straights gay to save the people and would go for making the gays straight. If that suicide proviso was out.
Mathematically, it seems that the anti-gay ray will cost more lives - through suicide - than the nuking.
Well, in the Superman mythology, there were several episodes that revolved around the villain contriving two or more simultaneous tragedies in far distant places, such that Superman would have to make Super Solomonic choices – and in every case, Superman somehow managed to be in all the places he needed to be at all the right times. Just another thing that Superman can do, y’know?
In the old George Reeves TV series, there was such an episode that I recall. Also, the theme figured in the first Christopher Reeve Superman movie as well.
This is just a math problem. If there are 528 million people in North America, and 10% of them are gay, then at most the box will kill 2.64 million people.
If 5% are gay, then it kills 1.32 million people.
Apparently, the real percentage may be more like 3.4%.
Either way, that’s a huge amount more people than the nuke.
Reasons to stop the nuke :
1. The bomb kills the people right away. Presumably, the anti-gay ray doesn't kill immediately - it might take a few days to take effect. Maybe our hero could reverse polarity and make a gayifying ray...although since it would act indescriminately on everyone I don't see how that doesn't just make the problems bigger.
2. From the perspective of outside authorities, the nuke kills a measurable amount of people right away. If the hero fails to stop it, he's definitely to blame. However, those suicides can be blamed on the people committing them. Believe it or not, but real life institutions make these kinds of choices **all the time**, and often in the wrong direction. It's not about what is better for society or people at a whole, it's about what looks better when it comes time to blaming a specific group.
This sums up my feelings pretty well. If the choice comes down to letting Singapura burn or watching my sister be mind-raped, my answer is, fuck Singapura.
Ordinarily I would say something cutting about the use of the word “mythology” in reference to Supes, but it’s late and I can’t be added. Please pretend I made an offensive remark comparing you to Paris Hilton.
Anyway, Bob ain’t Superman. He doesn’t qualify for white privilege, likes both girls and bots, sometimes kills people, has a kid, and will let a dragon eat 30,000 Iranians rather than let that kid get hurt, among other things. Speculating what Kal-El would do in Bob’s situation is pointless, because the editor is on Kal’s side in a way I am not on Bob’.
So… Neil is a bot?
The anti-gay ray sounds just as horrifying if it compelled hetero people to go out and fuck random strangers, even those of the same gender. The horror doesn’t seem to stem from anything to do with the victim’s sexuality, but the basically rape by mind control element.
Nah. Since reactors award show host.
Stop the gay ray. It’s all very well saying the ray takes time to be effective, but if even the creator has no cure, I doubt there’ll be time to prevent the suicides (what about all those people on the DL/closeted, for instance - who’ll know to watch out for them?) and the millions of - effectively - rapes that are going to happen.
And because this is a fantasy hypothetical, just this once, Bob takes the 10 seconds to rip the bitch’s head off. He’ll feel really, really bad about it afterwards.
I’d save the Indians.
According to many gay advocates, homosexuals currently attempt suicide at more than 5%.
Most suicide attempts do not lead to death (I am refraining from saying ‘fail’ as it implies suicide is good). Getting it all the way down to 5% would save lives in addition to all the Indians saved.
Preventing opposite sex relationships aren’t really worth killing tens of thousands of people for.
I think this would be a significantly more challenging hypothetical question if the 5% suicides were removed from the equation (if suicide were not part of the hypothetical at all.) Then it would be, “Which is worse, a nuke going off and killing thousands, or a mind ray being used to brainwash tens of millions of people?”
Unless I misunderstand the OP it isn’t so much brainwashing per se, but more like a mind control ray that forces you to have sex with people you don’t want to against your will and you are conscious of this the whole time.
I think the anti-gay ray phrasing is making some think it turns gays straight, it doesn’t.
God, I hate autocorrect. Neil is an actor/singer/award show host.
Is it? As Bob, I would be concerned about the long term consequences of explaining how and why a nuke just went off in Singupura. Is the Indian government going to be ok with my explanation or will they immediately set a fleet of bombs heading for Pakistan - who will of course, retaliate in kind. And would wiser heads in other countries have the discipline to stay out of it, or would they just assume that they needed to shoot first and ask questions later?
As horrific as it sounds, I would probably go for the bomb after ripping out LLLL’s spinal column and beating her to death with it (shouldn’t take long. I am, after all, super.)
It’s a bad choice but there aren’t any actual good choices, here.