# Why do hypotheticals that push people's comfort zones piss people off? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 4, 2018, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-hypotheticals-that-push-peoples-comfort-zones-piss-people-off/813592 "2018-05-04T17:57:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-hypotheticals-that-push-peoples-comfort-zones-piss-people-off/813592/21 "2018-05-05T16:08:43Z")
I know that this is IMHO, and so the title question is practically rhetorical, but [here are some thought-provoking observations on the subject.](http://theoatmeal.com/comics/believe) ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-hypotheticals-that-push-peoples-comfort-zones-piss-people-off/813592/22 "2018-05-05T16:32:23Z")
Not having seen that thread yet ----------- Some make me a little uncomfortable because they make me think about where in the sand I draw a line between what I want to believe and what I actually do believe. This can be more by topic than just generally icky hypotheticals in general. I am staunchly against abortion but have (and will) always vote pro-choice because I believe my right to an opinion ends at your skin. Write a well-crafted enough hypothetical on the subject and you can make me sweat a little. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2018, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-hypotheticals-that-push-peoples-comfort-zones-piss-people-off/813592/23 "2018-05-05T22:44:12Z")
> [@erysichthon](#): > > My thoughts exactly. Playing along with the hypothetical means that you’ve become a participant in the poster’s pervy little world. It doesn’t “piss me off” as the OP describes it, but I have no interest in playing that game. Exactly. I choose not to participate in the poster’s boner. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-hypotheticals-that-push-peoples-comfort-zones-piss-people-off/813592/24 "2018-05-06T00:03:59Z")
People are way way too insulated from anything that pushes their comfort zone. Having your comfort zone pushed is, itself, a hypothetical nowadays. “What would you do if somebody pushed your comfort zone?” Horrors. Look under the children’s beds and demand that people be fired. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-hypotheticals-that-push-peoples-comfort-zones-piss-people-off/813592/25 "2018-05-06T00:10:57Z")
It seems like the comfort zones pushed around here are always at the expense of people who aren’t old white men. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-hypotheticals-that-push-peoples-comfort-zones-piss-people-off/813592/26 "2018-05-06T00:37:29Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > It seems like the comfort zones pushed around here are always at the expense of people who aren’t old white men. The tyranny of the offended. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-hypotheticals-that-push-peoples-comfort-zones-piss-people-off/813592/27 "2018-05-06T00:42:53Z")
Did I push a comfort zone? ---
**Author:** ![expectopatronum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/expectopatronum/32/173_2.png) [@expectopatronum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/expectopatronum)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-hypotheticals-that-push-peoples-comfort-zones-piss-people-off/813592/28 "2018-05-06T01:37:07Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > I learned the hard way not to post hypotheticals that ick people out. And that’s fine. I have no interests in offending people, so I just don’t do it. > > I see now though **Skald** is getting a few snide remarks in his latest hypothetical about a couple and the lady’s past history with porn. > I just don’t get what it is that pisses people off so much. I mean, do you also get pissed at folks like Stephan King for coming up with some of the twisted stuff he writes? > > It doesn’t make sense to me. I’ll spell it out plainly for you: [Skald](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=13352505&postcount=12) has a history of making female posters uncomfortable with his detailed descriptions of gang rape and other sexual assault based “hypotheticals”. Thus the pointed questions and snarky remarks, which he of course dodges. You want to know what doesn’t make sense to me? How when stuff like this comes out on this board, there’s little more than a few raised eyebrows. People put so much stock in posters being long time/prolific posters, that often what said poster is actually saying gets handwaved away, or not noticed at all. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-hypotheticals-that-push-peoples-comfort-zones-piss-people-off/813592/29 "2018-05-06T02:38:32Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The only ones that bug me are the ones with moving goalposts. The OP presents some situation, and only gives a limited set of absurd choices. So you ignore the choices, and give a sensible answer. Then the OP comes up with some other constraint not mentioned before that makes that impossible, so you come up with a new answer, and repeat, until the hypothetical ends up being something like “A psychic alien mind-controls you and forces you to rape someone. What do you do?”, to which the only answer is “Whatever the psychic alien is forcing me to do”. Honestly, that sounds like your fault to me. If they gave two possibilities, and you give a third, then you are fighting the hypothetical. You have found a loophole, which then opens the door for them to plug that loophole. If you then keep on finding loopholes, then you’ve made it a competition between the hypothetical giver and you. I’m not saying you can’t give a different option, but I do think you have to realize that you are finding a loophole, and that isn’t necessarily the purpose of the hypothetical. The point is to hear your reasoning for why one or the other option is better. That’s why, when I do that, I also try to answer which of the stated options is better. I’ll even fix the loopholes in the hypothetical myself so I can give an answer. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-hypotheticals-that-push-peoples-comfort-zones-piss-people-off/813592/30 "2018-05-06T02:44:57Z")
> [@expectopatronum](#): > > I’ll spell it out plainly for you: [Skald](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=13352505&postcount=12) has a history of making female posters uncomfortable with his detailed descriptions of gang rape and other sexual assault based “hypotheticals”. Thus the pointed questions and snarky remarks, which he of course dodges. > > You want to know what doesn’t make sense to me? How when stuff like this comes out on this board, there’s little more than a few raised eyebrows. People put so much stock in posters being long time/prolific posters, that often what said poster is actually saying gets handwaved away, or not noticed at all. Yeah, I agree and it’s only gotten worse. The Dope is becoming increasingly incestuous and creepy. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-hypotheticals-that-push-peoples-comfort-zones-piss-people-off/813592/31 "2018-05-06T02:56:41Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > I know that this is IMHO, and so the title question is practically rhetorical, but [here are some thought-provoking observations on the subject.](http://theoatmeal.com/comics/believe) The underlying message is useful, but I feel it fails in two respects: 1. The reader is primed to not believe what they are reading, since you were flat out told you have a good reason not to believe it. As such, I didn’t believe either statement. 2. This was compounded by the fact that none of the statements had anything backing them up. My reaction to the slave teeth was different, but I still disbelieved both equally. I knew Washington didn’t have wooden teeth, but that’s it. I also didn’t have any problem with any of the other statements, because none of them are things I hadn’t already learned. That I learned them with little fuss suggests there is a way around these effects. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-hypotheticals-that-push-peoples-comfort-zones-piss-people-off/813592/32 "2018-05-06T03:36:42Z")
> [@expectopatronum](#): > > I’ll spell it out plainly for you: [Skald](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=13352505&postcount=12) has a history of making female posters uncomfortable with his detailed descriptions of gang rape and other sexual assault based “hypotheticals”. Thus the pointed questions and snarky remarks, which he of course dodges. > > You want to know what doesn’t make sense to me? How when stuff like this comes out on this board, there’s little more than a few raised eyebrows. People put so much stock in posters being long time/prolific posters, that often what said poster is actually saying gets handwaved away, or not noticed at all. Yeah. I’m gonna assume that the rape stuff _isn’t_ hypothetical for a lot of readers here, most particularly women. Which doesn’t mean that rape can’t be discussed _per se_, but it does mean treading a lot more lightly than, “hey, here’s this week’s silly made up scenario for shits and giggles”. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-hypotheticals-that-push-peoples-comfort-zones-piss-people-off/813592/33 "2018-05-06T03:40:48Z")
You know that movie trope where the guy shoves his dick up through the box of popcorn at the movies with his date? Yeah, those hypotheticals feel like dipping into that fucking box and knowing that sooner or later you’re gonna get a pinch of anteater and that’s gonna suck. As soon as you realize what’s in the popcorn box it’s time to just pass on the movietime snack action. Ain’t nobody got time for that. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-hypotheticals-that-push-peoples-comfort-zones-piss-people-off/813592/34 "2018-05-06T03:50:57Z")
> [@expectopatronum](#): > > I’ll spell it out plainly for you: [Skald](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=13352505&postcount=12) has a history of making female posters uncomfortable with his detailed descriptions of gang rape and other sexual assault based “hypotheticals”. Thus the pointed questions and snarky remarks, which he of course dodges. > > You want to know what doesn’t make sense to me? How when stuff like this comes out on this board, there’s little more than a few raised eyebrows. People put so much stock in posters being long time/prolific posters, that often what said poster is actually saying gets handwaved away, or not noticed at all. And I’ll spell it out for you: that post was made 7 years ago, and even then was talking about things that had happened years ago from there. People change. **Skald** was told that this behavior disturbed people, and so he changed his behavior. This is the first time I’ve seen his hypotheticals even mention sex in a long time. And, even then, there is nothing graphic about it. The reason we don’t have the reactions you do is that we don’t practice the same confirmation bias, where once someone does something you don’t like, you filter everything they do through that lens. Most of us don’t even know things about _Skald_ that happened a decade ago. We don’t constantly rehash stories about things they’ve done, or try to find every single tiny thing that can be interpreted (or misinterpreted) to be part of some huge underlying problem. It’s also patently untrue that the board has gotten more about incest. I literally cannot remember a single thread on that topic at all. And, while creepy posts do occur, they are almost always drivebys, and they get ridiculed. They do not get accepted as normal. If people wonder where the line is on where I say offense is not justified, this is a pretty good one. When the offense is based entirely on things you shouldn’t be doing in the first place. If someone apologizes and stops doing the thing that offended you, you should accept it, not looking a decade later for proof they are still a horrible person. ---
**Author:** ![expectopatronum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/expectopatronum/32/173_2.png) [@expectopatronum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/expectopatronum)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-hypotheticals-that-push-peoples-comfort-zones-piss-people-off/813592/35 "2018-05-06T03:56:03Z")
Shut up, **BigT.** I’m not even going to waste my time with you. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-hypotheticals-that-push-peoples-comfort-zones-piss-people-off/813592/36 "2018-05-06T04:25:32Z")
Bizarre hypotheticals have a long and honored history in law school classes and moral philosophy seminars the world over. For example, there aren’t enough trolleys, or fertile octogenarians, or precocious toddlers in the world for their existence in thought experiments to be justified, yet they persist, and not because lecturers and professors are all lazy. No, in the right hands, a thought experiment can get to the heart of a matter in a way real events rarely do. In reality, there are piddly little details which courts invariably pounce on and use to resolve the case, such that they never have to rule on substantive issues which bear on other problems. With a good hypothetical, you explicitly wave away the irrelevancies to get people to focus on core issues of moral philosophy and legal precept, so they train their minds to think those kinds of thoughts and engage those kinds of problems, not the “problem” of whether the contract was signed with the left or right hand or whether an adopted child is a life-in-being decades before the adoption. Of course, that presumes that there’s a context for the question, not some impertinent little obsessive asking a meaningless question which goes nowhere and illuminates nothing but their pet fixation. A good thought experiment is a way to attack and explore a real problem, and, in a course, that’s precisely how they’re used. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-hypotheticals-that-push-peoples-comfort-zones-piss-people-off/813592/37 "2018-05-06T04:36:48Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > And I’ll spell it out for you: that post was made 7 years ago, and even then was talking about things that had happened years ago from there. People change. **Skald** was told that this behavior disturbed people, and so he changed his behavior. This is the first time I’ve seen his hypotheticals even mention sex in a long time. And, even then, there is nothing graphic about it. > > The reason we don’t have the reactions you do is that we don’t practice the same confirmation bias, where once someone does something you don’t like, you filter everything they do through that lens. Most of us don’t even know things about _Skald_ that happened a decade ago. We don’t constantly rehash stories about things they’ve done, or try to find every single tiny thing that can be interpreted (or misinterpreted) to be part of some huge underlying problem. > > It’s also patently untrue that the board has gotten more about incest. I literally cannot remember a single thread on that topic at all. And, while creepy posts do occur, they are almost always drivebys, and they get ridiculed. They do not get accepted as normal. > > If people wonder where the line is on where I say offense is not justified, this is a pretty good one. When the offense is based entirely on things you shouldn’t be doing in the first place. If someone apologizes and stops doing the thing that offended you, you should accept it, not looking a decade later for proof they are still a horrible person. The thread in question was posted less than two weeks ago. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-hypotheticals-that-push-peoples-comfort-zones-piss-people-off/813592/38 "2018-05-06T04:41:10Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > The thread in question was posted less than two weeks ago. See the link in post 28. ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-hypotheticals-that-push-peoples-comfort-zones-piss-people-off/813592/39 "2018-05-06T10:58:55Z")
I am kind of an asshole sometimes about “This bit of comedy is funny in itself, and your moral scruples don’t magically transform it into ‘not funny’ just because it contains an image that doesn’t please you, or just because you are on a mission to discredit its creator.” And I’m new here and don’t know the history of the board and the people on it . The paragraphs directly above this one were just to give some context to my actual comment, below: I thought the two-week-old thread was gratuitously creepy in ways that weren’t part of a plot line and weren’t funny or dramatic, and also couldn’t be chalked up to character development or any other storytelling stuff. I felt kind of sick after reading it. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2018, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-hypotheticals-that-push-peoples-comfort-zones-piss-people-off/813592/40 "2018-05-06T11:42:13Z")
Damn straight I fight hypotheticals. In fact, I believe that there’s a moral obligation to do so. When people get too used to picking between bad choices in hypothetical situations, then they start picking bad choices in real situations, too. When someone asks something like “If there were a nuclear bomb set to go off in New York, and the only way to get the information to defuse it is to torture a suspect, would you do it?”, the correct answer is “That’s not the only way to get the information”. Answering either “I would torture the suspect” or “I would let New York be nuked” is to reject that, and leads to real people in the real world torturing real suspects to no benefit. In real life, there are no multiple choice questions. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-hypotheticals-that-push-peoples-comfort-zones-piss-people-off/813592.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-hypotheticals-that-push-peoples-comfort-zones-piss-people-off/813592.md?page=3)