I love you guys.
Don’t set the hypothetical car with the trapped hypothetical kid on fire.
This thread is stupid. I can’t believe it is still open.
By the way I am sure that the OP’er does not have kids. If he did, this type of scenario would not be something he would be mulling over…
Except, you like to drag race the truck and the extinguisher was used to cool the turbo between races. It’s empty.
I always thought it would be fun to assume that my kid would be the next Hitler, and then punish him proactivly for his future misdeeds.
“Go to your room”
“Why”
“For firebombing Seattle in 2025”
“But…”
“Save your excuses for the Cairo war trials of 2031 you future homocidal egomaniac. Now up to your room”
Hmmm…it’d probably be a good thing if I don’t procreate.
Did anyone else have the theme to MacGyver running through their head when they were reading this post?
Back to the OP…
I’d have no problem shooting your kid.
what if the next Hitlet turns out to be a necessary catalyst to a New World Order where we discover Hyperspace technology, thus ensuring our survival as a species? what then? huh?!
If a tree falls in the forest…
Ok, so since everyone thinks that such an outrageous scenario is not worth speculating about, let’s deal with a little more realistic a situation.
Instead of the tire blowing out, it stays intact. You get all the way to the shopping mall. You park and go inside. You check out the various stores and find the kid a pair of sneakers that are on sale for $89.99. He wears them out of the store. You walk to the food court and order from a mall Chinese food place. You get the sweet n sour pork. Your kid has chow mein. After finding a card and small gift for your brother, you return to your vehicle. Your car won’t start. After trying a couple more times, it does start. You note that you must bring the car in for servicing the next day. You return home. Your other child, a girl, is talking on the telephone. She’s taking a babysitting assignment for this coming Friday with a family down the street. After watching a movie with the kids that you’d picked up from Blockbuster, getting them off to bed and having a relaxing bath, you change into your sleepwear. You think about your spouse, who is away on a business trip. You miss them very much. You close your eyes. As you are becoming more and more relaxed and are drifting off towards dreamland, you realize you are thirsty. But you are also very comfortable. Should you get up and get a drink, or not worry about the minor thirst and stay comfy? What would you do? WHAT WOULD YOU DO??
A juvenile Hitler is called a “Hitlet”?
Shoot the kid.
I mean, $90 for sneakers? Come on!
Methinks debate left the station quite a while ago. Comedy and cynicism has arrived on platform 9.
Kel Varnsen - Latex Division, I feel sorry for you. I hate it when people can’t just take the damn hypothetical as written and either answer it or not. We get it, it couldn’t happen, it shouldn’t happen, it’s sick, it’s unfair, it’s too limited, blah blah blah. If you don’t want to participate in the author’s question, just move on. When you get a math problem in high school, I hope to god you didn’t sit there babbling, “There’s no way that he would mix a 40% solution of chemical A with a 30% solution of chemical B.”
O.K. rant aside, as best I can tell, shoot the kid.
Now for some general background that I find interesting. I think one of the byproducts of living in a generally happy and bountiful western society is our increasing dislocation from the basic state of nature.
I really see this having moved to the city from the countryside, and from viewing the difference in behavior from farmers to city-dwellers. Farmers understand pain. They understand that animals need to be put down. They are not fancy about it, and they do not spend large amounts of cash doling out death using methods that make them feel better (e.g. giving painless chemical injections). My father, for example, who grew up on a farm, has no compunctions about taking a terminally ill dog (or possibly even one that is just no longer wanted) into the woods and putting a bullet in its head. He is shocked why you would pay a vet hundreds of dollars to perform this relatively trivial task. Of course I have met many people, most often people who seem especially distanced from seeing the normal patterns of life and death on an everyday basis as you see on a farm and otherwise, who would be utterly shocked by this behavior.
Likewise, losing arms, legs, and other body parts, while not exactly accepted, is a normal part of life. While I think the OP is a bit morbid, the incredibly shocked and somewhat insulted reactions are fascinating to me, as they again display this difference in understanding regarding death and pain. It is almost as though we are now so comfortable and insulated that we want to cover our ears and scream at even the thought that something like this could happen.
[deadpan]
i’m not comfortable when i’m thirsty, so i will get up for that drink.
[/deadpan]
yeah, they’re cute aren’t they? 
Not only do I get the water, I also rummage around in DtC’s pants (offering of course to buy him a drink first) to retrieve some bicarb since the S&S Pork gave me gas.
Well, what if chemical A was water and chemical B was oil?
Who knew GD could be so funny!
This is GD right? I didn’t click over to SA by accident did I?
What if chemical A was acid glue and chemical B was Hitler? What then?
While I agree that those who didn’t want to participate certainly should just have gone away without posting, I don’t agree with your point above.
What benefit do we get from exposing ourselves to this sort of hypothetical? I actually rather like hypotheticals and I did my best to answer this one, but I am very prone to covering my ears and screaming at other thoughts. And I don’t see anything wrong with doing so. Hijacking the thread to do so is tiresome, though a few of the comments did make me giggle–I’ll admit it!