I was gonna say maybe they could implant the code next to the presidents heart so he would have to make a believable gesture of personal sacrifice to start the last war, but that would let him off the hook too easily.
As an aside - one of the best dramas in the last 10 years i’m saying, and hardly anyone watched it.
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He would just say “Kelly, go kill that guy.”
Yeah, that. Or we could require a up-or-down Congressional authorization on any first use of nuclear weapons, an entirely obvious and constitutional step the US does not currently take.
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The Dark Mirror National Anthem episode seems more suited to the current occupant of Casa Blanca.
He’ll just have Jared do it.
I believe the idea relied not necessarily on the president personally committing the murder (although that would certainly enhance the effect), but that he or she would be presented with immediate personal responsibility for the death of an individual they knew.
Think of it as the difference between a bombadier and a sniper. The more a person can distance themselves from or dehumanize an enemy, the easier psychologically to kill them. In a dogfight a pilot can imagine they only destroyed another aircraft. No one who was forced to use their Ka-Bar at close quarters has the shelter of such notions.
I propose an alternative: in order to launch a nuclear first strike the President must publicly release every income tax return he or she has ever filed.
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Which implies an underlying species bias, which might itself be a deeper problem.
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Just saw this, pretty damn relevant
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Problem? I’m sure I’m misunderstanding your comment. A reluctance to kill a member of one’s own species is generally considered a desirable trait. It is ingrained in most humans so strongly that it takes considerable psychological effort in infantry basic training to overcome. Even the most evil and ruthless regime in modern history resorted to euphemisms like ‘Final Solution’ and ‘Night and Fog’.
Yeah, I’m just riffing on the word “psychopathic”-- I don’t hate Juggalos, but admit I occasionally mock them, perhaps too easy a target.
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