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MixedNuts comments on Metacontrarian Metaethics - Less Wrong
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My favorite realist injection into the trolley problem is that there will be far more uncertainty: you won't know that the fat man will stop the trolley. I keep picturing someone tipping the poor guy over, watching him fall and break a few legs, moaning in agony, and then get mowed down by the trolley, which continues on its merry way and kills the children tied to the tracks regardless.
That's what makes heroism so poignant in real life. If you have to shoot an innocent but firmly believe it'll save the world, you'll probably brood a little (especially if there's also a cost to you), but mostly you'll get massive fuzzies. (I've never shot an innocent, but defending a cause you think is just is... more pleasant than it should be.) If you have to shoot an innocent and you expect it won't save the world but on average it's worth it anyway, it gnaws at you.
Heroism is throwing yourself on the tracks to save the greater number of people. Pushing somebody else may be an example of decisiveness, or courage (in the sense of grace under pressure) but there is nothing heroic about it.
This is a definitional dispute and an attempt at applause lights rather than a helpful comment.
I don't agree with your judgement. The applause light reference in particular doesn't seem fair.
If it's really purely a cost to others, okay. But usually there's also a cost to yourself - you push someone else and get a death sentence, or a life sentence, you push a loved one, or you're just eaten alive by guilt for the rest of your days.