estro

Ratbastards.

More of y'all clearly have a stance on ponies vs. kittens than are willing to come forward with a stance when given a simple moral thought game. Fortunately, a surprise encounter with cerevisiae led to good conversation (albeit one yelled over background stompy music) and renewed my hopes that folks were actually thinking about this, even if not clicking through.

As usual, I would prefer ideas to be expressed in the comments, but I understand that clicky buttons get more responses. <sigh>

Um, the below have all the reasonable caveats like the parent is making these decisions with intent to be good parent. (I.E., the choice is not about what child gets better prices when renting them out).

[Poll #1597582]

There is person X who will be set on one of two paths. He does not have any agency in this matter, ability to express a preference, or even advance knowledge that this is to happen. Whichever path he ends up on will be deeply important to him, and will be filled with adventures, joys, and sorrows; while he may get some understanding of what the other path looks like, he will never be able to switch. Neither path is inherently better or worse than the other for him, they are just different.

You do not know X, but you do have the ability to choose which path he will travel or to let it be determined by coin toss. Which path he is set upon does affect you to some degree, and you have a preference.

[Poll #1594373]

[Poll #1104603]