Hope this doesn’t head to the Pit - maybe still a discussable hypothetical with strict modding:
I’ve wrestled with this one a while, debating inwardly whether it was appropriate to post or not - admins can lock it shut if it isn’t, but I’ve suspected an underlying feeling of many for a while:
Suppose you had the power to make all 62,984,828 people who cast a ballot for Trump in the November 2016 election die (an instant and painless death - the humaneness isn’t an issue.) Would you?
Assumptions/rules:
The U.S. economy will suffer a severe recession lasting at least a decade (you can’t remove 63 million people all of a sudden without massive harm to industries.)
You are allowed 100 “exemptions” - you can choose up to 100 Trump voters to survive, such as family, friends and even yourself (if you pulled the lever for Trump).
Nobody else is affected.
The structure of U.S. government remains unchanged, albeit now with 63 million fewer voters.
No. First, it’s not a proportionate punishment. Second it would result in millions of orphans. Who’s going to take care of them? Not me, for that’s damn sure.
Third, I’m sure there are some Trump voters who I like and respect, whose death would sadden me.
I understand the hypothetical scenario and have a brother who is very deserving. But I think ultimately the Trumpocracy (and being lead to it by Fox News, McConnell, Newt Gingrich, the Kochs, and old white men) will be a long term win. I think it will rapidly bring in the next generation of forward looking people and policies. I just hope it doesn’t disrupt too much of the govt and economy in the near term to effect efficient change.
Quite simply wages and public health are not going up. Even the overturning of Roe v. Wade is not going to have the effect envisioned by my mother in that it won’t change in most states.
Bernie was got some initial traction, but AOC and her sensible “explain to me why health care for poor people is bad and why exorbitant wealth is morally good” rhetoric are starting to really poke serious holes in the morality of the GOP. WIthout a hateable Clinton (I know that there still isn’t a logic there) figurehead, there is going to be an inevitable shift left over the coming years. And having the Trump presidency and conservative ownership of the Supreme Court as well as both houses of Congress is going to be hard to paint it all away. Younger people are more connected to others around the world. They are less naive about American superiority.
So the uneducated moronic population that voted Trump will die a fiery death at their own hands. (Or so I hope!)
If I may explain a bit:
I understand it’s an extremely macabre OP. But it’s not that far off from sentiments that are often expressed:
“We need to wait a decade or two for old Republican voters to die out before change can really happen.”
“The problem isn’t Trump, it’s the 63 million who voted for him.”
Etc. Etc.
So it’s not that great of a stretch. It’s merely taking it a step further and making it active instead of passive. I don’t mean this as a troll question either. Maybe it would be better phrased as “Would America be better off without the 63 million Trump voters?” instead of a kill question, but the fundamental issue is the same.
“Would you support genocide if the victims disagreed with you politically? How about different sexual orientation? Religion? Skin colour? Hey, I’m just asking questions.”
Acknowledging that certain societal shifts are generational in nature, and that one generation’s culture takes hold as another generation’s dies off, is a vastly different thing from willingness to commit actual murder, not to mention mass murder on an unprecedented scale.
Ooh, good point. Can we zap the kiddies too? Pretty please?
Mass murder seems a tad much. If it’s assumed that all Trump voters are ignorant, why can’t they be zapped with enlightenment instead? No smelly, rotting corpses and sobbing relatives. No great recession. Or how about just zapping Trump into a prison cell? Taking one guy out of the picture without violence seems a bit more reasonable than murdering 63 million Americans.
To be fair, there is one poster on this board who has advocated ideas that are pretty close to this. But plenty of us have denounced him and nobody is supporting him. (Despite which, I’m sure there are right wingers on this board who will claim this one individual is representative of everyone they disagree with.)