# Would you press this magic button? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 24, 2025, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093 "2025-06-24T20:39:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cmyers1980](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyers1980/32/11814_2.png) [@Cmyers1980](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cmyers1980)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/1 "2025-06-24T20:39:28Z")
You get a magic button that when pressed makes every single person in the world have the same morals and ideological beliefs as you. No one will know if you press it and their new beliefs will be with them until they die if you press it. You have two minutes to decide before the button vanishes. The button vanishes when you press it. Would you press the button or no? ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/2 "2025-06-24T20:46:22Z")
Without a second thought. ETA: I would be fine if it was just the same morals as me. Ideology is a bonus. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/3 "2025-06-24T20:52:41Z")
Does it include fetishes? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/4 "2025-06-24T20:54:38Z")
Yep. I would. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/5 "2025-06-24T21:09:34Z")
No way. While I do wish more people agreed with me (or maybe just that there were fewer people to take the opposite view to extremes), even so, I enjoy variety. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/6 "2025-06-24T21:15:53Z")
I would not want everyone to think like me; that would be disastrous. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/7 "2025-06-24T21:19:15Z")
No. Mind control is against those very same morals. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/8 "2025-06-24T21:20:40Z")
No, I have no illusions about being the greatest force for good in the world. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/9 "2025-06-24T21:21:28Z")
Yeah, no thanks times a thousand. What I think is good enough for me. It needs lots of other viewpoints to balance it out, because there is so damned much I don’t know. As I have repeatedly demonstrated here. ---
**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:** [June 24, 2025, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/10 "2025-06-24T21:22:33Z")
Hell no, no hesitation about that answer. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/11 "2025-06-24T21:27:44Z")
I’m reminded of an episode of the little-known animated series _Jeff & Some Aliens_ > With the aliens away on vacation, Jeff accidentally uses a device that gives everyone on Earth his exact personality traits. (Needless to say, things don’t go so hot.) ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/12 "2025-06-24T21:40:48Z")
That was also (roughly) the premise of the _Twilight Zone_ episode “The Mind and the Matter.” ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/13 "2025-06-24T22:00:33Z")
No, I don’t have the right to do that. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/14 "2025-06-24T22:01:37Z")
No, because while I’m not a saint or a demon, my flaws becoming universal would not be a balanced world either. If the button let me pick the person whose morals and ideology I could duplicate, then I’d have to give it _serious_ thought. Yes, I’d be violating my morals, but given the current world situation, I may compromise them for the greater good, even if it meant deliberately sacrificing some of my own freedom as well as everyone elses. Hey, I specifically said I wasn’t a saint! ---
**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:** [June 24, 2025, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/15 "2025-06-24T22:10:15Z")
Nope. How boring the world would be. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/16 "2025-06-24T22:24:39Z")
How much does “ideology” encompass here? Like is it just things like “no death penalty” or does it include “Better Call Saul is better than Breaking Bad”. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/17 "2025-06-24T22:34:51Z")
You mean stop people from having an overwhelming need to kill, torture, enslave, starve, steal from other people? I’d do it. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/18 "2025-06-24T22:37:01Z")
But that is not all that it would do, is it? ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/19 "2025-06-24T22:47:29Z")
I’d press the button, but not before I first extremely carefully fine-tuned my beliefs to make sure they’re actually good. However, since the OP only said moral and ideological views, then this is an easy choice. If he said the same “policy views,” that would be a lot harder. What if a 60% tax rate on the rich is not, in fact, a good idea? etc. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2025, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093/20 "2025-06-24T22:54:35Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > But that is not all that it would do, is it? Pretty much. If it means that everyone will also like coffee and have an irrational fear of hyenas, well, I can live with that. > makes every single person in the world have the same morals and ideological beliefs as you. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-press-this-magic-button/1020093.md?page=2)