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Precedent (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 8 months ago by to c/politicalmemes@lemmy.world
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[–] 7 points 8 months ago (2 children)

There are only a few thousand people around the world who are doing this. As a collective, we could END THIS in a single afternoon. They all have home addresses and places where they sleep. They all go out to eat and they all drive around or fly out of airports that are predictable and trackable.

There are resources for you to find these people.

There are people in your neighborhood who would help you, if you can but find them.

There are many people who would see nothing when you go by.

The thought experiment I have been considering is that there is a child surrounded by 4 men with assault rifles. One of them is pouring gasoline over the child and pulling out a lighter. The child is screaming.

There is a crowd of thousands of people surrounding this, all VIOLENTLY wagging their fingers and saying, "hey man, that's not cool. Don't do that."

There is one person SCREAMING at everyone to fucking do something else to help. There aren't enough bullets for all of us.

What is the correct response by the crowd?

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  • [–] 6 points 8 months ago

    It's a diffusion of responsibility problem. The bigger the crowd, the less likely any individual is to take personal action. Also, the sum of that possibility (the likelihood that any member acts) also goes down.

    This is why big companies become amoral (and so can act immorally so easily).

    It's also why first aiders are taught to pick on people. Don't ask, "someone ring an ambulance!" instead you pick on someone. "You! In the yellow coat, ring a fucking ambulance for me, now!" It resets responsibility to an individual. It's also why good first aid courses make it clear YOU need to act, no matter how many people aren't.

    Unfortunately, at country and global levels, diffusion of responsibility becomes a problem. This is also why we have things like police and governments. It helps refocus responsibility onto a smaller group. The downside is that, if those groups get captured, then we are left floundering, unable to act.

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