If Thanos had, instead of randomly wiping out 50% of all living things, he had instead in each species wiped out only the dumbest 50% what would the reaction of each avenger have been?
Isaac Asimov, a very intelligent person, wrote a lengthy essay to the effect that he had no idea what intelligence was. He talked about how society would generally consider him more intelligent than the nearly illiterate man who repaired his car, and yet whenever something went wrong with his car he would go to his mechanic and listen to his advice as if it was being handed down from the mountaintop by Moses himself, because Isaac Asimov knew fuck all about car repair. He talked about how he thought that supposedly objective IQ tests were generally a series of gates designed by people already considered intelligent to keep themselves in power, and that they totally disregarded huge swaths of indispensable human knowledge and talent. Isaac Asimov, who has been published in literally every section of the Dewey Decimal System, concluded that he had no firm idea as to what exactly "intelligence" even was.
In short, how could one even define "the dumbest 50%"?
And that's why Thanos should have made everybody half as large as they once were.
They'd still be appalled and try to stop him given their strong moral code. And given that they'd be at full strength they'd probably find a way to stop him and reverse things faster than they did in OTL
Why on Earth would the Avengers react any differently? Is the assumption that they're morally bankrupt enough to actually reconsider in this scenario? That somehow letting "stupid" people be murdered is ever, in any way, acceptable?
It requires a single doubling to get back to where we were. To double, you'd need about 10 times a 7% growth. Probably within less than 100 years you'd be back at the same problem
Not to mention that when you murder a shit tonne of people, and when it's over you'll likely have lots of people getting babies, so you get a birth wave about 9 months later. That regrowth starts FAST.
I mean, he could have just created 200% more resources as well. Or he could have equally redistributed all the resources. The problem he was trying to solve would still eventually happen again, because solving the problem relies on everyone working unselfishly, which is simply not possible when humans are involved.
I think the whole 50% depopulation is a flawed premise, of the hundred of thousands of years modern humans have existed that would throw total population back to... 1970
I think it largely depends on his definition of “dumb”…. Given he’s already committed to wiping out half of all life, I’d consider his mental facilities to be of questionable intellect already. His idea of who is dumb may be similarly questionable…
Why couldn't Thanos just wish for unlimited resources? Or universal peace? Or literally any number of things that would have solved the problems he was trying to solve without anyone getting hurt or never existing? His method was stupid.
He also could have just created trillions more planets so that there wouldn't be natural resource shortages. Nope. Gotta murder quadrillions of life forms.
Thanos could have literally chosen 1000 other options that were better than killing 50% of all living things, and I'm sure nobody would have disagreed!
Thanos was a fucking stupid character in the MCU. The human population is currently doubling every 61 years with a growth rate of about 1.14%. Assuming similar numbers across the galaxy, he didn't do anything except cause suffering. He's a very poorly written villain.
I guess to stay on topic, they would have looked at population growth, and determined that his plan was moronic, and fought him.
What would make this question more interesting is can you think of any metric where they would flip, or at least consider it. For example, all the members of Hydra (a bad example, would never make 50%, but you get the idea).
Avengers would have been much better prepared. T'challa, Hank, Janet, Dr Strange could have all helped plan the response. Bucky, Sam, Hope, Peter Parker could have all helped execute the plan.
Also Scott since he wouldn't have been trapped in the QR.
Drax and Quill are still goners. The rest probably aren't snapped.
Vision, Gamora, Loki, Heimdall unchanged since they died before the snap.
Thanos was a fucking stupid character in the MCU. The human population is currently doubling every 61 years with a growth rate of about 1.14%. Assuming similar numbers across the galaxy, he didn't do anything except cause suffering. He's a very poorly written villain.
I guess to stay on topic, they would have looked at population growth, and determined that his plan was moronic, and fought him.