In a world full of so many powers even ordinary people have them, not having powers is a handicap (like Button). So taking a criminal’s powers away would be like making them disabled. It would be like the archaic “an eye for an eye, a hand for a hand.” Personally, I don’t want criminals to be made blind for their crimes. The same thing applies to becoming mind blind, in my opinion.
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Well there’s only one confirmed person who is mind blind so it makes complete sense (for myself) to make everyone else “blind”. It’s the only way that their world could marginally be more fair. Also, if you read the codex entries less than 10% of the world has super powers. Taking a criminal’s power’s away doesn’t make them disabled. It makes them normal. Are you disabled because you can’t read your co-workers mind? No. Or, to put in realistic terms, are you disabled because you’re not as athletic as Simone Biles?
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So if Simone Biles used her athleticism to commit a crime we should chop off her legs? Hell, even not that extreme, we should not allow her to exercise? They don’t even stop you doing that in prison.
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Considering the fact that in general normalizing superpowers doesn’t ends well for the world, i don’t see anything wrong with people losing them they would just live as we do
In many instances of the story we see incidents caused by these mental abilities, like MC had with their mother, or when the innocent idk 10 year old kid almost making MC shove a pencil in their nose, or sally’s problems.
Since we see it just from MCs perspective its easy to ignore the fact that there are about 8 billion people in the mind blind world and if a kid almost did something like that to MC many other kids with stronger abilities would certainly would have done it as well. Or the incident with MCs mother would also be pretty common same with people like sally, that is not even considering the fact that crime in general would be way more severe and most of those victims won’t have plot armour like MC.
Yes, you could find a way to reduce their effect but fact is people having superpowers in general so commonly never ended well for any past stories too.
Its like alot of people if not everyone in the world would be born with a gun which at a young age without any control would be about as dangerous as one might think.
I mean just take example of fictional worlds which do have superpowers, dc, marvel, and the most accurate example of it would be the boys
Now, the boys is in general a extreme version of that thought process, but the point sticks that if not on the large scale, the dangers of widespread superpowers are too much
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Doing this would be a massive, massive personal civil liberties violation, I don’t see how it could be framed as a good idea
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In this world all of those examples can ONLY happen to the MC. He is the only known 0 in the world. All other people have a baseline level of telepathic ability, even if they aren’t able to actually use psychic powers, that act as defenses against that sort of intrusion.
The other example, Sally, isn’t a result of people using powers to hurt her. She has issues with being around people with powers, but that’s the equivalent of someone having a perfume allergy. We don’t ban all perfume use because some people are allergic.
People using their powers to commit crime isn’t an argument for removing everyone’s powers. I would argue it isn’t even an argument for removing the powers of criminals. We don’t remove parts of people they use to commit crimes. We no longer see it as acceptable to cut off the hands of pickpockets.
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See, the problem here is that nobody has the right to make that call. Once the technology that lets people tdampen/remove their powers is developed, make it available, but absolutely nobody should be forced to utilize it. There are people who will be better off without their powers, which means they’ll take that option, and there are people that want to keep theirs, which means they keep theirs. On top of that, even if you wanted to try and shut everybody off, you literally could not enforce it
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That’s a very optimistic assumption considering that people like Nick exist in the world, a ment with stronger abilities won’t have any trouble infiltrating and breaking average ments defenses with ease.
And as i said there are about as many people in Mind Blind as in real world, people like Nick or even of close strength to nick would be alot. 8 Billion is not a small number, if Nick exist there are probably thousands if not millions of people of the world who would be in the same strength range as him.
As for people like sally i mean, by that i mean is she herself is having problems from her own ability its a trope seen in many other worlds where characters deal with the backlash of their own ability. Its low key acts like a disease or condition with no solution for it.
People using these powers for crimes is a big argument, i don’t understand how you are trivializing it. Blackmail, identity theft, not to forget these powers make the already existing crimes more severe like burglary and mass crime syndicates which can use these abilities for even worse crimes.
And removing powers of criminals is the same as taking away a gun from a criminal or person without proper training or license to carry it. You can keep it if you are qualified and that is my point.
Widespread normalization of superpowers is way too dangerous, the saying “No one should have too much power”, isn’t just a quote but actually makes sense.
By your current statements we should also legalize carrying guns everywhere
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Your powers are literally part of who you are, something you’re born with. If you’re taking away someone’s powers, you might as well be cutting out a chunk of their brain, firearms usage is not that
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If the power can hurt you or someone else, it is the same as a weapon. Unless you have a certification or training to keep the power it isn’t something everyone should be privy to
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It’s not an assumption, it’s a literal reading of what the text has presented. You are making up situations to fit your opinion, I am taking the information that the story has presented. Is it possible that could happen? Maybe, but nowhere in the story has it been presented as an option thus far. The MC is the only person with no mental defenses and the only one capable of being controlled like that. It is why he feels so much self recrimination after the bombing. Because only HE could have allowed the tower to be bombed in that manner because only he is able to be controlled like that.
From what I understand Ment level testing is a standardised practice. People are tested at a young age to determine their ment level and still the MC is the only known level 0. IS it possible there are others? Sure, its possible, but the text as written gives us no hints that the MC is anything other than completely unique.
No, it’s not like taking away a gun. It’s like lobotomizing a person. Once again, I am perfectly capable of walking up to someone and killing them with my bare hands. I am much stronger than the average person, I have a “power” of strength. Does that mean we should cut off the arms of a strong person who does that? Or better yet, cut off the arms of all babies at birth so they can never murder someone with their arms? You cannot equate taking away an external object that can be removed without harming someone with excising an intrinsic part of a person.
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It was a poor comparison. I thought of a better one in the shower. Billionaires. Can’t become a billionaire with a moral compass. Still not 100% cause we don’t have criminals with superpowers lol.
Not true if you actually read the story + the codex entries. Even if you don’t read the codex, any of the people in Vengeance can attest to the fact that superpowers KILL. The old couple’s daughter who just wanted to volunteer and help people. Instead she was brainwashed and has no life anymore. Or Boris’ brother. 1’s and 2’s are victims. Not just Button. Hell we don’t even know their daughter’s score so maybe they were a 3+ and the mindrapist was a 10.
She doesn’t have an issue with being around people with powers??? She doesn’t like when she uses her powers because they generally give her bad (scary) visions. Which is why people with her powers like to live off the grid lol. But like isn’t the right word. It’s the only way they can feel comfortable with living. Otherwise they’d probably just kill themselves.
Put the cure in the water supply.
Not the same because everyone (99%+) has hands. Not everyone has superpowers.
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A very small amount of the population has some level of photographic memory, and some of those do eventually end up committing crime, that doesn’t mean we should start poking brains
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Am I the only one playing with an evil button that only wants to kill people with powers? (not even sure if this is an option)
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And a problem with the dose the water supply solution is assuming that the dampener is a drug and not some sort of surgical process. If it’s a surgical process, then you’re going to have to literally hunt down every single person with powers, strap them down, and poke around in their heads, good luck. All of this, by the way, violates who knows how many levels of civil liberty and personal rights precedence that have been set over the last 300 years
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Actually, this is a fair call. I seem to remember talk about the Korean Wars involving ments brainwashing people, but that involved physical and mental torture to break down their mental barriers. So while it’s not impossible for ments to influence people who are Pollards 1 and above it is much more difficult for them.
I feel like we’re splitting hairs. When she is around anyone with a Pollard score she sees visions of the future. She doesn’t when she’s around the MC due to information overload.
“There were too many numbers!”
“Exactly,” he said. “When you’re nearby, Sally’s brain gets sent too much information—too many numbers. She can’t add together the future or hear your thoughts.”
“She can’t read my mind?”
“No more than you could remember all those numbers,” Dad said.
That was unexpected. Maybe you shouldn’t have yelled at her.
“Why doesn’t Sally like seeing the future?” you asked. “She can know when Mrs. Perriman plans a pop test!”
Dad wrapped his arms around you, pulling you against his chest. His flannel shirt smelled like fabric softener and peppermint aftershave, as well as the faintest whiff of tobacco from the cigars he sometimes smoked after your bedtime.
“The future isn’t always kind, Button.” He pressed a kiss onto the top of your head. “You save Sally from seeing all the sad things that may happen.”
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True we aren’t told about events like these happen in the story, but i would i argue that the story is seen through MCs perspective and what they percieve as important to the story at the moment
Assuming that normal ments with average mental defenses can’t get effected by stronger ments who can break these defenses is just naive.
What you are saying pretty much implies that even the weakest ment with weak mental defenses can stop someone like Nick or stronger with no trouble.
What would even be the point of Ments like Nick being used by government if they can’t do anything to anyone with even the most miniscule mental defenses.
I never talked about there being another guy like MC, just normal person with normal mental defenses can still get effected by stronger ments who may or may not have malicious intent
yes, you can punch someone while walking aimlessly, my punches are probably relatively weaker than yours. But in general people don’t expect to be punched by some random guy walking aimlessly neither get shot by a gun or get attacked by a ment
but a gun or a ment attack will almost always be more lethal than a punch, its too much power in a walking average day to day working joe to have.
Now ofcourse, in the world of Mind Blind taking these powers away will ensue some backlash from people who think of their ability like a gift or a part of themselves as you say. And i am not really qualified to talk about how the government would go about it, nor am i really interested in the morality of it.
My point is that, These powers are dangerous and taking them away is the safest and best way to ensure it doesn’t cause much damage.
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It’s not “much more” difficult for them. It’s said very early on in the game that 1’s are the most common victims of ment crime. Have you played the Patreon demo? Because I feel like if you haven’t then this conversation that we’re having makes a lot more sense. People literally get their minds raped into nothing - like a vegetable - because of telepathy.
Where does it say that they physically tortured them? I’m not, not believing you but I don’t recall that. This is from the codex:
South Korean citizens residing in the city were forcibly conscripted into the North Korean army, their minds grasped under the control of designated Ment “will breakers.”
And yet Noh is obviously a telemetrist/telepathist but Button “knows” that there are no telemetrists in whatever city they live in. Because of what happened with their mother. So there are obviously people who fall through the cracks.
This really feels like an anti-gun conversation. Are you guys Americans or something?
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Taking away peoples firearms is drastically different from literally allowing the government to shut down parts of peoples brains without consent, that’s, like, bodily autonomy shit
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And yet Ments do that to normal people every day 
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