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AIBU?

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Original poster

Would you kill 10000 people to save the person you love most?

438 replies

CurdinHenry · 05/10/2026 19:12

Context -

You would just have to press a button and you wouldn't have to see it happen

You would be guaranteed not to know any of them beforehand

No one would know it was you unless you confessed

Yanbu yes
Yabu no

OP posts:
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5
AllTheToddlers · 07/10/2026 12:14

50Balesofgrey · 05/10/2026 19:39

I would do anything for love,
But I won't do that

Bravo!

nomas · 07/10/2026 12:41

Noshowlomo · 07/10/2026 09:15

Yes, when the whole point is saving your own child. SAVING!
Again, this is all very made up, but who doesn’t look at their own children and think that you’d go to the ends of the earth for them. I don’t think I’d feel guilt if it meant saving my own child. I could look into his eyes until the end of my days then

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The opening post didn't say 'child'. Of course for most people people their child will be the most loved, but you've made up what you think the OP says.

nomas · 07/10/2026 12:46

Goatsarebest · 07/10/2026 09:17

Yes. Agree it's different but it's the nearest actual life event that I know of where someone had to make this sort of decision. It actually had quite profound impacts on both the father and son and, like you say, it was not an active action of ending someone's life, just an omission with consequences. So whilst most are saying they would save their loved one, they might be underestimating the long term consequences of actively causing the death of 10000 children of other people, which is what they are.

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Poor man, poor kids, poor every victim and their family.

Real life hits differently and is much more meaningful than a bunch of people saying they would kill '9 billion' people to save their child.

nomas · 07/10/2026 12:50

namechangetheworld · 06/10/2026 20:19

Any mother saying no and feigning outrage over this hypothetical situation is a virtue signaler of the highest order.

I'd do it and feel no guilt whatsoever.

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Yes, because 'I would kill 9 billion people for my child' is not virtue signalling at all, it's totally objectively possible 🙄

sunshinestar1986 · 07/10/2026 13:42

Noshowlomo · 07/10/2026 10:29

I totally understand the situation would never actually happen, but why are 10000 strangers more precious to you than your own children?

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I would hate to murder innocent people more than I love my children.

Hoppinggreen · 07/10/2026 13:46

I don't think that there is any number of people that I would not wipe out to save my DC

nomas · 07/10/2026 13:50

Hoppinggreen · 07/10/2026 13:46

I don't think that there is any number of people that I would not wipe out to save my DC

How long would your dc last roaming around an empty world with everyone dead.

What a cruel fate to subject them to.

LostThestral · 07/10/2026 14:16

yes, I would without a second thought

Clydebuilt · 07/10/2026 14:27

Blankitout · 05/10/2026 19:21

I'm still reeling after reading about the botched attempted state killing of Christa Pike in Tenessee. Absolutely repulsed by the fact the mother of the murder victim , Colleen Slemmer, was actually present at the execution. Horrible that her daughter was murdered but how does watching someone being murdered by the state make her any better then those who murdered her daughter.
I dont like your thread at all OP.

So hide it.

Blankitout · 07/10/2026 14:48

Clydebuilt · 07/10/2026 14:27

So hide it.

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Of course i have the option to hide it.
I also have the more constructive option to leave a comment and give feedback to the OP. WhichI have done

CloudyWithAChanceOfCustard · 07/10/2026 14:58

Blankitout · 05/10/2026 19:21

I'm still reeling after reading about the botched attempted state killing of Christa Pike in Tenessee. Absolutely repulsed by the fact the mother of the murder victim , Colleen Slemmer, was actually present at the execution. Horrible that her daughter was murdered but how does watching someone being murdered by the state make her any better then those who murdered her daughter.
I dont like your thread at all OP.

I genuinely don’t understand your answer. How is this comparable in any way…and what has it got to do with the OP’s question?

Many, many families of murder victims in the USA go to watch the execution of the perpetrators. You don’t have to like it…or understand it (I don’t either)…but they obviously have their reasons to be there. It’s still got nothing to do with this thread!!

Hoppinggreen · 07/10/2026 14:59

nomas · 07/10/2026 13:50

How long would your dc last roaming around an empty world with everyone dead.

What a cruel fate to subject them to.

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So they would be better dead then?
They are now 17 and 21 so i think they could last quite a long time if they had to

CocksBolingey · 07/10/2026 15:08

Absolutely.

gannett · 07/10/2026 15:12

Goatsarebest · 07/10/2026 09:28

So we solved the problem of why people are prepared to enable the mass slaughter of thousands even their neighbours and friends, in history. Just tell them they are a threat to their family and there's no consequences if you kill them. If you can get usually reasonable people on MN to do it then no problem getting the masses to do it.
Concerning, tbh.

Exactly this.

The mindset throughout this thread is precisely why "ordinary people" support, stand by and are complicit in atrocities against other humans - because they've been convinced those other humans are threats to their own families.

Dozycuntlaters · 07/10/2026 15:13

If my son was standing there, and I has the choice to save him by flipping a switch, then yes I would flip that switch. No doubt or hesitation at all.

Jerrybalanitis · 07/10/2026 15:58

I would rather the world ended completely than just me dying. Was just saying this today and we all agreed the same.

MaIeficent · 07/10/2026 16:01

Jerrybalanitis · 07/10/2026 15:58

I would rather the world ended completely than just me dying. Was just saying this today and we all agreed the same.

Why on earth would you think that?

MaIeficent · 07/10/2026 16:02

gannett · 07/10/2026 15:12

Exactly this.

The mindset throughout this thread is precisely why "ordinary people" support, stand by and are complicit in atrocities against other humans - because they've been convinced those other humans are threats to their own families.

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Not even necessarily that. If you think your family may be at risk from the oppressors then you'll turn a blind eye to what they do to others.

Petrolitis · 07/10/2026 16:31

Without a second's hesitation.

nomas · 07/10/2026 16:31

Jerrybalanitis · 07/10/2026 15:58

I would rather the world ended completely than just me dying. Was just saying this today and we all agreed the same.

But that's exactly what will happen one day. We all die and the world keeps on spinning.

gostickyourheadinapig · 07/10/2026 16:53

Hoppinggreen · 07/10/2026 14:59

So they would be better dead then?
They are now 17 and 21 so i think they could last quite a long time if they had to

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It would be a fairly grim existence and who are they going to date? Each other?

Jerrybalanitis · 07/10/2026 17:44

MaIeficent · 07/10/2026 16:01

Why on earth would you think that?

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Because I would prefer for everything to stop existing rather than just me

Dontlletmedownbruce · 07/10/2026 19:25

I don't get the 'stranger' element. They are people, does it matter whether you know them or not? If they lived near you or looked like you, would it matter? As pp have said, I'm finding this thread explains a lot of the apathy towards mass murder that is going on in the world today. 'But we don't know them!', 'better them than us'. What harm if those people die, their existence doesn't impact my life, as long as the supply chain keeps going I don't give a shit. I'm really hoping most of the replies here are just AI bots or lying bravado cos it's quite scary to think people can be so cold.

MsDitsy · 07/10/2026 21:39

Could I choose which 10,000 I'd kill,? 'I would start with paedos, animal abusers and Domestic abusers.

nomas · 07/10/2026 21:51

This thread is giving Facebook comment section vibes.