It’s a classic social science experiment: Imagine you are walking
along the train tracks when you spot a runaway train hurtling toward
five unsuspecting track workers. Fortunately, there is a signal lever in
front of you. If you pull it, you can divert the train to another track
and save five people. Seems like an easy decision. Except for one
problem: There is one unsuspecting worker on the other track. If you
divert the train, you will be responsible for killing someone who would
otherwise not be in danger.
What do you do? Do you kill the one to save the five?
A horrible choice, but before you answer, consider another wrinkle: The person on the other track is an immediate relative — your mom or dad or sister or brother. Do you pull the lever and kill your loved one to save five strangers?
Pull the lever, don’t pull the lever — there is no good outcome. For many conservatives trying to decide whether to pull the lever for Donald Trump, that pretty much sums up the choice in this election.
Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens recently made a compelling case against pulling the lever for Trump. Looking back on Trump’s attack on Gold Star mother Ghazala Khan, his dismissal of Sen. John McCain’s record as a POW, his mocking of a New York Times reporter’s physical disability and his questioning of an Indiana-born judge’s fitness to preside over a lawsuit against Trump University based on his Hispanic heritage, Stephens wrote, “His problem isn’t a lack of normal propriety but the absence of basic human decency. He is morally unfit for any office, high or low.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-election-is-a-train-wreck/2016/08/15/ab1fe1ee-62e7-11e6-8b27-bb8ba39497a2_story.html?utm_term=.4cdfbea29e93
What do you do? Do you kill the one to save the five?
A horrible choice, but before you answer, consider another wrinkle: The person on the other track is an immediate relative — your mom or dad or sister or brother. Do you pull the lever and kill your loved one to save five strangers?
Pull the lever, don’t pull the lever — there is no good outcome. For many conservatives trying to decide whether to pull the lever for Donald Trump, that pretty much sums up the choice in this election.
Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens recently made a compelling case against pulling the lever for Trump. Looking back on Trump’s attack on Gold Star mother Ghazala Khan, his dismissal of Sen. John McCain’s record as a POW, his mocking of a New York Times reporter’s physical disability and his questioning of an Indiana-born judge’s fitness to preside over a lawsuit against Trump University based on his Hispanic heritage, Stephens wrote, “His problem isn’t a lack of normal propriety but the absence of basic human decency. He is morally unfit for any office, high or low.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-election-is-a-train-wreck/2016/08/15/ab1fe1ee-62e7-11e6-8b27-bb8ba39497a2_story.html?utm_term=.4cdfbea29e93
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