ethics-5
Explanation
This comic satirizes a common tactic in philosophical ethics debates: constructing increasingly absurd hypothetical scenarios to justify otherwise indefensible behavior.
The banner reads: "Philosophy Tip: Any behavior is morally acceptable if you make the scenario stupid enough." Below is a heat-map chart titled "Ethicalness of Drunk Driving" with two axes: "Blood Alcohol Concentration" on the Y-axis and "Nearby Hitler Concentration" on the X-axis. The color gradient goes from blue ("more ethical") to red ("less ethical").
The chart shows that as the concentration of nearby Hitlers increases, drunk driving becomes more ethical -- presumably because if you're surrounded by Hitlers, running them over while drunk is morally justified. At high Hitler concentrations with low blood alcohol, drunk driving is maximally ethical (blue), while at low Hitler concentrations with high blood alcohol, it's maximally unethical (red).
The comic is poking fun at how moral philosophers (and philosophy students) love to construct extreme thought experiments -- trolley problems, ticking time bombs, etc. -- where normally immoral actions become justified. The joke is that you can make literally anything seem ethical if you're willing to make the hypothetical scenario absurd enough. "Nearby Hitler Concentration" is the perfect parody variable because Hitler is the go-to extreme example in ethical thought experiments. The pseudo-scientific presentation with a proper heat map and axis labels makes the absurdity even funnier by lending it an air of rigorous analysis.