Violence

Renegade Survivalists v. Stranger Beating

in
“You’re kidnapped by a renegade survivalist group and transported to the middle of the desert in Utah. By and large they stay in their own compound and prepare for nuclear destruction. Quality of life is decent, grow/ raise their own food, responsible for their own water and electricity, slow internet hookup though. They also take hardcore drugs and then all sleep amongst each other (60/40 ratio men to women roughly). They give you two options. Stay and live with them for 10 years. Or. They present a chained up guy to you, who you have to just beat the shit out of. You don’t know if he did anything wrong to them, or anyone. Maybe, maybe not, he could just be some guy. If you choose to beat the shit out of him, they’ll let you go. What do you do?”
— Mikey

I'd beat the shit out of the guy and feel no remorse.  The crazies are responsible for the guy's wrongful or maybe rightful imprisonment and subsequent beating, not me.  Plus I have confidence I could avoid most really long term damage.

On the other hand the life in the Utah desert doesn't sound unbearable, but ten years is way too long to burn.  I could just skip the drugs, but a lot of burdens would soon fall on me as the most responsible cultist.

Fallout v. Deadspace

in
“You have to chose between living in these two bad video game universes: 8 years in Fallout 3 or 24 hours in that game you wanted to play me to play with the lights out (forgot it’s name, but it is basically Event Horizon with more aliens in video game form.) What do you choose?”
— Mikey
Fallout v Deadspace PCv.jpg

I'm making a few assumptions in my answer that I think you'll find acceptable.  1) I'm assuming that second game is Deadspace, grotesque alien horror, really violent.  Yeah.  2) I'm assuming that this is a no extra-life no save and replay situation.  I die, i die.  3) I'm assuming that this is a real life representation of these worlds.  Living in them as if they were reality as the developers imagined them.

That said, 24 hours in Deadspace.  I'll take my chances.  And let me be clear, my chances of survival are next to nothing, but if I do survive my necromorph disaster, there are parts of the Deadspace universe where life continues essentially normally.  Even a high-tech enjoyable life of luxury in a futuristic society.  Those are not the experiences of protagonist Isaac Clark, but I could hope that I could maneuver my way around the terrifying man-hunting alien virus and evil cultists and find a spaceship to something better.  If not, 24 hours might be plausible to wait it out.

It would be far easier to survive the Fallout universe but less enjoyable to do so and not for eight fucking years.  Christ, it's still a total post-apocalyptic wasteland infested with radioactive scorpions the size of buses, fire breathing ants, mutants who carry sledgehammers and say things like, "I will wear your bones around my neck," and cannibals.  Something would get me eventually.  And even if it didn't, life for those years would be terrible.

Plus the girls in the Deadspace universe seem more attractive.  Well... at least until they sprout an extra row of teeth and tentacular razor swords from their shoulder blades.

FDR Punch v. Straws

in
“Would you go back to the 1920’s and take a potshot at FDR (during the time when he had polio) and then immediately return to the present day if you had to drink every drink for the rest of your life with a straw? ”
— Mikey
FDR punch v straw PCV.jpg

It's a great question Mikey, and I'm really glad you've asked it.  I see the problem as a threefold:

1)  What are the personal repercussions of taking a potshot at the man who many view as an American hero who I see as the father of the loan generation, the generation that borrowed from me and my fellow young people and now can't pay back.  From a logistical standpoint, I'd be arrested, imprisoned, and/or shot in (I assume you meant) the 30's no less, which would definitely be a downside, but you did stipulate that I'd be immediately teleported back to present day, which would presumably prevent those back-in-time legal and physical issues to my person.  Yet, there's no statute of limitations on assault, so could be that I'd be arrested in 2017 for punching FDR in 1934, and imprisoned now, which makes the whole straw thing a moot point.  Drink from a straw, not from a straw, who gives a shit if I have to do 5-15 in a West Virginian prison?  All this leads to a tentative, "rather not."

2)  But the bigger issue is, what are the global repercussions, and that becomes a complex matter of time travel paradoxes and the butterfly effect, for which I and no one has a clear answer.  The potential damage to the universe of me taking a potshot at FDR is catastrophic, especially considering I'd be physically attacking a sickly old man in a wheelchair right before the greatest armed conflict and moral battle of world conquest in the history of our species.  That leads to a less tentative "no" on the hypothetical.  Again, the issue of the straw drinking becomes largely irrelevant next to something as horrifying as the axis powers winning World War II or The Milky Way imploding because I ripped a hole in reality through which all nearby stars were pulled into an unfathomable realm of unbeing.  At the very least, if I have the power to go back and punch historical figures from the era and I really wanted to risk disrupting the fabric of space and time, I'd punch Hitler.  But that's beyond the confines of your hypothetical and so I apologize for the digression.

3)  If you suppose that the punching is going to have no meaningful impact on history or reality, then the hypothetical becomes a little more tenable.  I'd say "no" it's not worth it for me to punch a guy with whose policies, that are now several decades old, I firmly disagree, if I then have to drink from a straw for every drink for the rest of my life.  I might enjoy the moment, but I'd not suffer the humiliation of drinking beer from a straw until the day I die.  That'd be awful.  And Pepsi and lemonade iced tea in my own home, with my own glasses, with my high quality filtered ice, with a straw?  Abhorrent.  I don't like these social programs, but I really don't like straws.  Now, if I was able to bring a friend with me and he could film the repercussionless potshot on my iphone and then that footage could be uploaded to YouTube and turn me not only into a semi-sadistic celebrity overnight but also a symbol of free market politics and generational justice, I'd change my mind on the issue.  Not because that alone outweighs the fucking straw, but because such fame would make it much easier to publish my novels.

Golovkin v. Hashtags

in
“Would you rather...fight Gennady Golovkin, who is 28-0 with 25 knockouts in a 3 round fight.  Or: Make sure you use hashtag in every conversation you have at least once. As in “Hi mom, how are you doing? hashtag good morning.” You have to do this for a year.”
— Mikey

I admit you have me conflicted with this one.  The option I'm not considering at all is actually going a year having conversations with people where I constantly use the term hashtag.  So effectively you've given me the option of having a very dangerous but very short battle with a professional puncher, or take a vow of silence for a year.  Much as I think I could survive the Golovkin encounter, I feel the vow of silence is more me.  Plus if I needed to speak, then I could always say something like, "Take me to the hospital!  Hashtag emergency" which I would avoid as much as possible.  Should I fail to keep my vow of silence- hashtag shame.