I’ve given this story to many a liberal and it’s always the same: “oh my god, I can’t believe they walk away at the end. if it were me, I’d tear the kid free with my own hands.” pointing out to them that it’s an allegory for our world and all the suffering they accept, they to a one grow uncomfortable and change the subject. I’ve never had one willing to discuss the story past that point except perhaps to go back to insisting that they’d free the kid.

I ask anyone saying they'd free the kid why they haven't traveled to their nearest ICE facility and done the same. And you may say, well, they have weapons, and Omelas doesn't have weapons. Sure. But you aren't at these facilities daily protesting, and you have reasons for that, and those reasons are ones we have to live with because we aren't actually doing everything in our power to do something. And that sucks a lot, but it's absolutely a thing.