this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2024
441 points (95.5% liked)
Political Memes
5402 readers
3340 users here now
Welcome to politcal memes!
These are our rules:
Be civil
Jokes are okay, but don’t intentionally harass or disturb any member of our community. Sexism, racism and bigotry are not allowed. Good faith argumentation only. No posts discouraging people to vote or shaming people for voting.
No misinformation
Don’t post any intentional misinformation. When asked by mods, provide sources for any claims you make.
Posts should be memes
Random pictures do not qualify as memes. Relevance to politics is required.
No bots, spam or self-promotion
Follow instance rules, ask for your bot to be allowed on this community.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Just chiming in to say I think you're right in that these types of thought experiments pop into people's heads pretty regularly, albeit with way less "trying to justify a creepy sex fantasy" intent like the public poll post seems to have.
Though I have to question why it was public in the first place. I don't know who the poster is or if it's their real name, but what if it's less "projection" and more "morbid curiosity" in seeing just how many people would answer yes to this heinous question? There is some merit in gauging reactions to this from a social psychology point of view (even if this is an non-scientific example).
Follow-up thought. Without morbid thought experiments, how do people create horror stories and gritty crime dramas like L&O:SVU when a story has no particular real life basis? I'm not sure it's wholly possible in a fictional novel or show. There's a reason people eat crime dramas up; it's fascinating and horrifying to see how far a real and fictionalized human will go in various circumstances.
In a way, it's a manifestation of the "call of the void" situation, where an intrusive thought (what if I jump off this bridge right now? what happens if I yank the steering wheel driving 50mph? spook a herd of grazing horses? slap grandpa upside the head? while out hunting??) so I think its purpose is more to keep you aware of harzards in whatever the situation may be. Avoidance through sudden acknowledgement of the risk.
Again, I don't recognize this person or know any background, but maybe they posed the question as a wacky means of self-preservation on a broader level? As if the poller thought, "How many of my viewers would prostitute out their child if given the most forgiving, financially advantageous, and seemingly consensual circumstances?" to figure out how worried they should be about a certain percentage of their friends, neighbors, and/or followers. Avoidance through asking weird questions publicly.
Edit: Holy ship I managed to write a whole novel on my thought experiment about thought experiments ahh^ahh.^