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In which Scott Aaronson creates the most offensive trolley problem imaginable
(scottaaronson.blog)
this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2025
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Hurling ordure at the TREACLES, especially those closely related to LessWrong.
AI-Industrial-Complex grift is fine as long as it sufficiently relates to the AI doom from the TREACLES. (Though TechTakes may be more suitable.)
This is sneer club, not debate club. Unless it's amusing debate.
[Especially don't debate the race scientists, if any sneak in - we ban and delete them as unsuitable for the server.]
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Had me in the first few paragraphs...not gonna lie. Then it flipped to a pro-Zionist theme, and I was all like, "Wut?". Buddy, how do you not see the utter hypocrisy in your take.
Fuckin' satire is truly dead. It's bleeding all over reality and nothing is real anymore.
Yeah, the first few paragraphs actually felt like they would serve as a defense of Hamas: Israel engineered a situation were any form of resistance against them would need to be violent and brutal so Hamas is justified even if it killed 5 people to save 1.
The more I think about his metaphor the more frustrated I get. Israel holds disproportionate power in this entire situation, if anyone is contriving no-win situations to win temporary PR victories it is Israel (Netanyahu's trial is literally getting stalled out by the conflict).
The metaphor implying the necessity of mass murdering children had you?
No, actually. It was the part about someone killing your whole family, while everyone else sits back and just watches it happen, sometimes with approval. That's basically what the world has been doing while Israel kills hundreds of thousands of people.
It was also the trolley problem metaphor itself, in the next paragraph. The rest of the world could stop the genocide, by simply cutting Israel off. No more weapons, means no more killing. But it would also leave Israel defenseless.
So, should the world pull the lever and save Gaza, knowing it will ultimately lead to more Israelis dying? Or should they keep giving them more weapons, so that they can keep murdering Palestinians with them?
This is the "leverage" Netanyahu uses to coerce the world into looking the other way, while he keeps killing more children.
Sanctioning countries that send troops/bombs into other peoples countries till they stop doing that and repay for the damages would be a way to prevent that. They can still have guns for self defense, but as soon as they use them to retaliate an not just defend they get cut off. (Of course this system can be beaten, and it also requires a world police force, and the UN has never been that in what I assume is partial design, the UN should never be able to threaten the USA/Russia).