Pretty much the title. I’ve been watching more realistic super hero shows like The Boys and Invincible. The reoccurring themes is that with great power comes great immorality.
I think it’s easy for us normies to respect other people and their property because there are clear consequences for violating social norms. But what would the average person do if they had super powers?
Not at all. It’s easy to get away with things even without superpowers. If I don’t do something, it’s because I don’t want to be a person that does that thing.
(I didn’t want to declare my gender, because ‘the site that shall not be named’ is an absolute dick to women, but I’m feeling like that might not be as much of a thing, here)
… I came across a group of 5 or 6 huge 6ft footballers, in a circle, kicking this small indigenous kid around and taunting him, I’m half their size, a girl ,probably 12, and just about the shyest quietest kid in school, but when I saw that, the pure rage that welled up in me, has no equivalent on earth, my muscles all lock up and knot and I (somehow) came out with a deep booming growl of a voice, that made all a these blokes just freeze dead, I boom at them, “what the fuck do you all think you’re doing!!” , and in a slow angry tone I add “do you all feel like big men, a heap of you, beating up on one guy” . And I stood there, all rage, staring them down. The indigenous boy noticed they were all frozen and scattered along the ground and grabbed his bag and pelted.
I realised this needed to end, and he had escaped, so I tried to throw out some finalising statement of ‘do you feel proud’ or’this better never happen again’ or something, I don’t really know, because by this stage, I’m gripped with ultimate terror of what I’ve done. These guys are twice my size, and happily beat up kids smaller than them. If they snap out of this and realise, I’m easy prey, I’m done for. I fake a hold on my rage, turn and (painfully) slowly walk away and proceed to lock myself in the girls toilet and cry for the rest of the day, expecting a mob of footballers to be out there, after snapping out of their trance, ready to dust me. But I made it home, unscathed. Those footballers gave me death stares, the rest of high school, but none of them ever spoke to me or gave me trouble, really. A taunt here and there, but always when surrounded by classmates. The indigenous boy came and found me and thanked me, later, I asked him if that had happened since and he said, yeah. But he still really appreciated me sticking up for him, that day.
I didn’t really think about what I did that day, those words to those footballers just fell out of my head, they rose up from the depths of my soul, I didn’t really feel like I controlled it.
But also, I know I’d do immoral shit, if I got superpowers, I’d go around and kill all the billionaires and dictators. I’d probably give them an ultimatum, give away your money or die.
I feel like the boys just represents a more realistic subsection of humans, there would be a percentage that are narcissists and have powers, and a percentage that are highly moralistic, like in gen v. And I could see capitalism being the real bad guy, in real life, just like in the boys.
But I want to be a billionaire one day. I want to start a company and grow it, as ethically as I can but still survive in capitalism. Would you still kill me? Will people hate me if I fulfill my dream? I want to raise incredible capital, invest it in people, their bright ideas, and trade schools for autistic kids, and retire to a private island. Am I still in your hit list just because I’m a billionaire?
If you become a billionaire. When I get my superpowers, I’ll be coming for you. Maybe I’ll do a “Christmas carol / Scrouge” style montage and show you how many dead tiny Tim’s are in your trails.
You are probably safe for multiple reasons. Not the least of which is, unless you are already on the winning side of the rigged game, you will not become a billionaire. Millionaire maybe.
Hopefully by selling multiple products with good value at a favorable market price, and then reinvesting to repeat with another idea. I’m not trying to be an oil company, though I would invest.
I wouldn’t bother with trying to argue these points on Lemmy. It’s like being leftist who thinks anyone who makes more money than them is the devil is the mandated religion on this site.
And I live in Argentina I know what “redistributed” wealth ends up looking like so I do understand where you’re coming from. But people on Lemmy have no interest in even considering any other point of view in this regard
But do you consider the other side of your views? I find it hard to believe someone actually has a true and complete understanding of capitaliam and then still goes on to defend it. Unless they have skin in the game. You don’t sound like you listen, while bagging out other people for not listening. If you do have a deep understanding, I would genuinely like to know how, specifically, you went from that understanding to pretending you don’t see how harmful it is. Please correct me if I haven’t taken your meaning correctly.
Please list me 500 sources for your world views so I might discredit them one by one!
I don’t defend capitalism further than the fact that it’s the best system we have at the moment as something people will accept, considering the only alternatives are anarchism or socialism.
What I do hate is the ideas that turned my country from a first world country to a third world country in less than 100 years. But trying to explain what it’s like to someone that lives in such privilege as the US is like trying to explain a color to a blind person. And my comment wasn’t aimed at the validity of leftist ideals or the value of capitalism but rather at how polarized Lemmy has been in my short experience on the site.
I’ve blocked over 30 subs at this point trying to get politics out of my feeds. And for some reason all of those were leftist subs, like as if opposing opinions weren’t allowed on lemmy
Edit: And a final comment, I’ve come to the conclusion that the concept of left and right that each person has depends on their country of origin. But everyone seems to think that when someone says right wing in another country they’re referring to the same kind of right wing they have at their own country
Taxes? Taxes can immediately and directly affect the specific changes that I want to see in the world? Tell me, what are you smoking? Get your socialist bitch ass out of here.
Also, regardless of my morality, fuck yes I want dragon level wealth. I want to never ever think about money again, and give my offspring and living kin the same privilege.
For some I’m sure that’s the case and would behave pretty remorselessly.
Others have a conscience.
Others still would engage in shitty behavior but probably destroy themselves pretty quickly dealing with the mental problems of doing what they know is shitty.
Be honest? Yeah, I’d do stuff I shouldn’t. But nothing I couldn’t sleep at night over. But one thing I know I’d do is find some way to bring down everyone fucking over regular people. Even if it’s as simple as stopping time, placing a recording device in a boardroom, and letting it record them plotting to fuck over whoever, and then retrieving it for public display.
Or robin hooding it to weath transfer from the ultra rich as a form of wealth redistribution. I’d definitely pass my own pocket a little thicker, to your point, but the main thrust of power focusing on personal benefit would be very narrow and short lived in scope.
Yes. And i actually believe most people would not harm others. I believe people hurt others because of fear and superstition. If you are in the priviliged position to feel empathy you would feel disgusted when hurting human beings. Becomming a god might even make you more empatic, because you dont have to struggle to survive.
Usually how it works is time for you is active, but what is you? Usually thar includes clothes and stuff, and other matter inside of us that isn’t usually considered a part of us. If we extend this logic, it’d include the air in us and maybe toughing us. I think this would be more fun, because it’d leave a vacuum behind us and superheat any air we move, because it’s instantly moving without any time passing. Basically when time unfreezes there’s be a massive sonic boom on out path with superheated air all around.
Not really, because you wouldn’t be able to see anything or hear anything if time stops. Even light particles would stop moving, and your eyes would just see flashes of light as you move through space.
I mean we could just assume it to be like what 1/100 seconds per seconds perceived by user and everybody else would be moving and perceiving so slowly that it accomplishes pretty much the same thing right? Bullets might be a bit tough to dodge now at ~12ft/s (for handguns) but not impossible so still seems pretty useful
At 1/100 speed, light would be so redshifted that you wouldn’t be able to perceive it. However, some X-rays (1-10nm) would be redshifted into the visible range (400 to 700nm).
I guess this means you would have x-ray vision. But you would see little to nothing since our environment normally does not include significant levels of X-rays.
None of the cleanup in your brain that takes place when you actually sleep is going to happen either, so you’d wake without getting any of the benefits of rest too, right?
For sure. I wouldnt outright hurt people but id definitely do things to improve my own life. Assuming it’s the kind of time stopping power where I am not affected and can still interact with objects I’d use sports or roulette gambling to get rich. Easy to manufacture winning with time stopping powers in either.
If I wanted to be ethical I guess I could put on some sort of circus/magician act with tricks and feats abusing the power but I don’t know how rich you can get off what would be perceived as a really good trick.
Id also like to know the extent of the ability, if I stop time indefinitely, do I still age or am I immortal in a paused world? Can I stop time travel the world and see every sight and read every book then restart everything having lost nothing aside from my own sanity?
This is important because it determines if it’s worth trying to be a super hero with this power imo. If I can stop time and help people avoid death all while being able to go right back to where I was losing no true time it’s worth it, otherwise I’d still be aging and I’d grow older faster than everyone around me. Id die earlier in real time if I continue to age while I stop time for everything else. If that’s the case I’d only use the ability really for my own benefit.
True but if you had potentially infinite time, why not? I suppose nutrition and hydration maybe an issue depending on how the ability works too. It would be annoying to have to lug around supplies.
Thing is if you stop time you would also stop yourself, so either you can move stupidly quickly(or even FTL, which means physics just goes out the window, since the entirety of your body can’t convert that much energy to go even 1% the speed of light, so either you would have to somehow inject massive amounts of energy into your body which will still only grant you a short amount of time, not to mention medical complications; or you literally generate energy out of nowhere, which at that point you might as well be a god);
or everything else stops, which means you can’t breath unless you also control air around you, and if you can control air particles around you, why not other types of particles? And once you can control any types particles you might as well be a god since what’s stopping you from literally doing bloody nuclear fusion and turning the entire planet into a star?
So basically if you can stop time you are literally a god Or you defy the laws of physics which also makes you basically a god Or you die while stopping time which would kinda be weird as you just kinda suffocated to death out of nowhere
He did not outright tell that it would be unetical but he implied it.
…gambling lottery… But if I wanted to be ethical
Imply that the roulette part is unethical.
He said he would do it tho, so I guess it’s not unethical enough for him not to do it. Stealing is unethical but yeah, it’s casino, so it’s not that bad.
Everyone in this thread, “what’s this, I am a bastion of morality and its extremely important I convince anons on the internet about this.”
But for real when I dream about stopping time I dream of a pocket universe where I am the only person present. That way I can speed (I know I know I’m evil) on highways, explore, and learn without weird frozen bodies getting in my way. I would mostly use it for naps and cheating on tests (I know super evil).
Does it have to be murder. Can’t you just move them to a secluded island away from all communication technology and if they are found just move them again? I promise it would be more fun.
Unless the time stop powers get real weird with physics, I really don’t think I’d be down for carrying thousands of people thousands of miles and then babysitting their prison indefinitely.
This is an idea that has been around for very long time. Plato used the Ring of Gyges to talk about it - which went on to inspire Wells’ The Invisible Man - and influenced Tolkien among others.
The Ring of Gyges is a hypothetical magic ring mentioned by the philosopher Plato in Book 2 of his Republic (~375 BC). It grants its owner the power to become invisible at will. Through the device of the ring, this section of the Republic considers whether a rational, intelligent person who has no need to fear negative consequences for committing an injustice would nevertheless act justly.
So many ideas trace their roots back to ancient Greece/China. I guess there’s nothing new under the sun.
Obviously not all of them, just like not every single person would abuse superpowers. But the numbers are still orders of magnitude higher than everywhere without weapons, even though shooting someone still has consequences unlike doing shit while invisible.
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