trolley-realism

An SMBC comic about a cynical, realistic take on the trolley problem. Main panel: a person with curly dark hair, round glasses, and a turtleneck stands looking distractedly to the side. A large speech bubble presents the scenario: "You are in a trolley. By altering the course of the trolley you can reduce overall harm. However, it would cause you mild inconvenience and anyway you're only half paying attention because something just happened on your phone." Caption below: "Somehow the realistic version of the trolley problem was far more distressing." The joke is that the classic ethics dilemma is reframed so the deciding factor is laziness and phone distraction rather than moral reasoning. Votey (aftercomic): a simply sketched face with glasses adds, "As long as I'm not in the trolley when it hits, I find I just don't really care" — punctuating the self-interested apathy.