• stickyprimer@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      Yes it was clear that someone somewhere in the world “who you don’t even know” would die. The characters have a debate:

      “Maybe it’ll be just some Chinese peasant.”

      “What if it’s someone’s newborn baby!”

      More than anything I’m shocked at the casual dismissal of the Chinese peasant. WTF?

      Anyway at the very end of the show the same guy who brought them this dilemma comes to collect the device and he very pointedly uses the same language to say “now it will go to someone new that you don’t even know.”

    • MajorasTerribleFate@lemmy.zip
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      11 hours ago

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Button,_Button_(The_Twilight_Zone)

      Yes, that somewhere in the world, someone she doesnt know will die.

      When Mr. Steward returns to collect the button box after the button is pressed, the lady asks what happens to the box next. She is told it will go to someone else with the same offer, with assurances that the new recipient will not know who she is. As the previous commenter said, the wording deeply implies she would be the certain “someone” targeted by the next button press.

      • NTesla@lemmy.zip
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        5 hours ago

        But what would happen if she didn’t press it? Would the button be offered to someone else again? In that case, she would be targeted regardless of her choice.

    • dreadbeef@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      11 hours ago

      The dilemma is “would you push a button for money” not “would you push a button knowing what it did for money”

      • kartoffelsaft@programming.dev
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        10 hours ago

        “Would you push a button for money”, on its own, is barely a dilemma. If you’ve been given no good reason not to press it then you don’t have a reason not to press it. I’d be curious to see this Twilight Zone episode because, if it really is presented that way to her, then it’s not her morals that are comprimised and instead that of whoever distributed that button.

        • TeddE@lemmy.world
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          9 hours ago

          She’s told that someone on earth would die and she doesn’t know them. The twist is that while it’s implied that it’s a random person, it’s revealed at the end that it’s the last person to press the button.