this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2026
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It really helps to not think literally, and mentally substitute as follows: it is plainly evident that if you do nothing, five people will die. But there is something you can do to prevent this, at the cost of another person’s life.
The trolley car isn’t real, it’s just a visualization tool— but people get hung up on the visualization. And if that’s you getting hung up on the visualization, then drop it.
It’s usually not a person that is “tying people to the tracks”, it’s a situation that’s just… happening. For the purposes of the thought experiment, there is no relevant cause— maybe someone evil tied people to the tracks, and sure that’s bad, but the thought experiment isn’t about someone else, it’s about you. What do YOU do, when everything else is out of your control, but the one thing in your control will also kill someone.
It’s always phrased as “do nothing, or pull the lever” for a very good reason, by the way. People often mentally change it to “choose five people or choose one person”, but that’s not the situation. It’s “let events happen without getting your butt off the couch (and maybe feel bad about it later), or actively do something that ends in someone’s death to save them”.