And what are we pretending to be?
“Humans”.
And what are Humans?
“Not animals, that’s for sure!”
This is called speciesism, the believe that your live is worth more/you are better simply because of your species.
Speciesism is a great word and it uses all of the tools of our language in a way that makes sense.
But someone decided at some point we should call this “Anthropocentrism” instead
I knew the furries were right all along
The Furries saw the truth and transcend.
“I am cringe, but I am free”
That’s literally my mantra, and I’m waaaaay more happy since I accepted it
I love people who are like “we need to return to nature!”
Like, I get the sentiment and we should definitely try to coexist with the rest of the animals since were smart enough to, but i think its important to remember that we are nature. We cannot separate ourselves from it. Even skyscrapers are natural. Just ask a termite.
Yup. Pollution is natural. It’s not about what’s natural, but what keeps our environment in a state where we can thrive.
You’re so damn right! We can’t pull us apart of nature and neither everything we do!
We still have this notion and hubris that we’re above animals, and animals are below us who are alright being stepped on and abused. I noticed that in a lot of cultures, their insults and profanities is being compared to an animal (in Europe, the profanities seem to be generally sexual).
Also, for the religious, admitting we’re animals is definitely an insult and denial of biblical teachings that god created humans. When Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution first became a mainstream sensation, some cartoonists drew him as a monkey. I debated with a religious before who believes in conspiracy theories. After pointing out about evolution, I was called a monkey. I wasn’t even insulted though because, yes, that is basically what I’m trying to say. But technically I’m not a monkey, I’m an ape. Humans are apes. The monkeys are our cousins. Religious folks don’t like to admit we’re animals because it contradicts their beliefs.
Religious folks don’t like to admit we’re animals because it contradicts their beliefs.
Their religion is based on the idea that we’re special somehow. It allows their followers to feel better than the ‘lesser’ animals, and the ‘lesser’ races/cultures. They teach that we’re the chosen ones with our tools, and language, and emotion, and thoughts.
The fact that we’re all equal, and that other animals have all of those qualities is a threat to their power.
To be fair, if I took my cats values and morals there would be a bloodbath.
Humans could all be grey blobs and people would still argue they are greyest and blobiest. They love to feel special.
Hey, I recognize a The Fairly OddParents reference when I see one. That’s good taste, fella 👌
We don’t pretend we are not animals. We pretend we are the ONLY animals, and all others are merely objects.
The Apex Animal, the Uber-animal, the Sigma Animal 🗿
Uhhh I would strongly disagree with that being a mainstream belief
Do you consume non-human animals? Then you are probably psychologically dependent on ignoring all the ways they are the same as we are. You probably believe there are lots of things that distinguish us, as long as you never think too closely about it, that make it morally permissible or even morally encouraged to exploit their bodies and pretend that they don’t have a mind fundamentally like yours.
Being an animal means having animus. But we act as though we are the only creature having it; the only with interests, with thoughts and feelings, with desires and goals, that uses reason, that struggles with everything within us to live.
Do you actually have anything to say beyond, “I disagree”, or are you (like most carnists) just psychologically required to obstruct your own inconvenient thoughts whenever they arise?
That’s why furries were invented
Speak for yourself. I’m a filthy mo fo
Pretending to be an animal doesn’t solve much either but it’s fun from time to time.
If we pretend to be other animal, sure isn’t helpful. Is not about pretending to be this or that, but to stop the antropocentris and start to see ourselves as part of something, not something apart of everything else.
I knew someone from this instance was going to post. I knew it!
You and me baby ain’t nothing but mammals so let’s do it like they do on the discovery channel
You’re on the internet, anyone here might not be human
The next stage of evolution:
Animal -> Human -> Porn Bot -> ???
I am? [farts]
Would an animal fart like that?
You might be interested in looking into Cynic philosophy and into the sparse but colorful stories surrounding Diogenes of Sinope
I know my fella Dionegenes pretty well. He was based as fuck 🔥🔥
If aliens were to visit Earth, human vs. not-humans (aka sentient vs. not) would be the single biggest thing to consider. Far more so than male vs. female, plants vs. animals, even alive vs. nonliving (rocks), humans can literally send nukes in their direction while they hang in outer space, while literally nothing else can. We light up the night sky… on purpose and could stop it in a moment if we wanted.
We’re kinda a big deal.
Although now computers (e.g. Skynet) could do it too, so it’s humans and those highly specialized rocks together on one side, vs. literally everything else on the other.
So humans are not “just” animals, like computers are not “just” rocks.
So, what we are then?
(And, at the risk of sounding harsh, what’s with the constant duology? Why the mania of dividing everything into “this” and “that”?)
We are humans. We are animals. And we are more than that. Perhaps we are also lesser than that at the same time?
The duality was how the idea was presented to me - this is not my OC, or perhaps the words are but the concept I first heard told by an atheist apologeticist (if that’s a thing) Daniel Dennett speaking out against Intelligent Design (which at the time was still a thing that people bothered arguing against). I believe he was relating it to a binary classification scheme such as machine learning approaches are often built to follow. Anyway it’s just a vehicle for the conveyance of the idea - obviously nuances exist irl, yet there is some value in keeping things simple too, especially at first.
Hmm, ok. Now I can see the point you where making. Thanks for elaborate.
Yeah I was thinking about this the other day after watching some Twilight Zone or something. It’s interesting that a lot of our fantasy/sci-fi is about how pathetic humanity might be compared to alien beings, especially since in reality we actualy play the role of the highly superior beings.
That style does seem to predominate, especially in video form, but there are others where humans compete more on if not quite fully equal than at least more equal terms. Babylon Five springs to mind there.
Also more outside but some still fully inside of “scify” the more “fantasy” elements may posit the existence of alternative universes that we travel to & from not by traversing physical space in between but through portals, accessible here on earth. Like Stargate.
So, those others are out there, but yeah it definitely meshes less well with what we see and know now about what might be in space.
Agree we are animals…but not sure that is the biggest problem…
Like, yeah of course there’s a lot other things. Maybe I should should have say “one of the biggest”
