<story><title>Princeton lab simulates nuclear war (2019)</title><url>https://sgs.princeton.edu/the-lab/plan-a</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>andretti1977</author><text>I know it may be off topic but i don&amp;#x27;t want people to discuss about the reliability of the data involved, no, i want people to reflect about the outcome: end of humanity.&lt;p&gt;It disgusts me to think that maybe 99.99% of world population wouldn&amp;#x27;t harm another person but due to a ridicolous small fraction of the entire population, we risk to end our lives.&lt;p&gt;This is completely absurd and makes no sense at all.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pmoriarty</author><text>&lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;maybe 99.99% of world population wouldn&amp;#x27;t harm another person&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I think they would... especially in self-defense, in defense of someone they cared about, and plenty would do so for ideals like &amp;quot;freedom&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;country&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;democracy&amp;quot;... and if they wouldn&amp;#x27;t most would be perfectly happy to let others do it for them.&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s why the military and police exist, and why most people are perfectly happy to fund and support them.  It&amp;#x27;s also why wars have so many participants and supporters.&lt;p&gt;Politicians can further rile people up to commit violence against scapegoats and even preemptively against distant potential threats.  It&amp;#x27;s not so difficult for them to get a lot of people to commit violence against a historical, cultural, political, religious, or ethnic enemy.</text></comment>
<story><title>Princeton lab simulates nuclear war (2019)</title><url>https://sgs.princeton.edu/the-lab/plan-a</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>andretti1977</author><text>I know it may be off topic but i don&amp;#x27;t want people to discuss about the reliability of the data involved, no, i want people to reflect about the outcome: end of humanity.&lt;p&gt;It disgusts me to think that maybe 99.99% of world population wouldn&amp;#x27;t harm another person but due to a ridicolous small fraction of the entire population, we risk to end our lives.&lt;p&gt;This is completely absurd and makes no sense at all.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>hayst4ck</author><text>A police officer is a position of power. In many parts of the world, someone in this position of power will use that power to acquire resources via bribes or extortion. This person with authority of the state has a right to violence that you do not have. This person has determined they have a right to your money and a &amp;quot;justification&amp;quot; (The law of nature: I have more power) to take it.&lt;p&gt;If you give the money there is no &amp;#x27;harm,&amp;#x27; yet you have been harmed with the threat of violence. If you need that money to feed yourself or get medical care for your child, it might literally result in death.&lt;p&gt;If you fight the police officer, others will come after you. If you gather your friends to fight the police officers, you have now subverted the government, created your own government (because you are now an agent of enforcement of your own set of &amp;quot;laws&amp;quot;), and now started a very small scale war (revolution) out of your desire to not be harmed.&lt;p&gt;If you don&amp;#x27;t think people would self enrich at the cost of others, I have some very bad news for you. Just because a person hasn&amp;#x27;t been physically damaged, doesn&amp;#x27;t mean they haven&amp;#x27;t been harmed.&lt;p&gt;If there was a button that gave you a million dollars but would kill a person you have never met, I think you vastly underestimate the number of people who would press it, and those that do press it, would probably be happy to press it many times.&lt;p&gt;The way you use the word harm is what prevents you from making sense of the problem.&lt;p&gt;Confusion is not the result of understanding. Sadness is.</text></comment>