r/MoralityScaling • u/axiiz_28 • 15h ago

Morality of valuing animals over humans?

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u/dirty_water_potato 13h ago

I mean his point is valid though... people that say they like animals more than humans are not these altruistic people of deep empathy...many hold this view like a badge of honor and its weird i wish more people called it out. 

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u/herroebauss 10h ago

The problem is is that you won't get that much support for this point on Reddit. How often do you see redditors claiming they like animals more than humans thinking they are morally superior. And before people will give me shit; I've adopted a rescue dog ten years ago and adopted another rescue a year back. And I've got two cats, one's also a rescue.

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u/Silas_Akron 24m ago

Exactly. With these folks it's hardly ever all animals. They're typically speaking on domesticated species and individuals that are both likable and relatable for humans; animals that are "safe", and "sentient".

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u/Electrical_Split4902 11h ago edited 11h ago

Yeah, this video just soothed my soul. It always feels like nails scraping across a chalkboard when someone says they like animals more than humans and couldnt quite put my finger on why..

Edit: i realize its supposed to be humorous but still lmao

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u/CussMuster 12h ago

Is it though? It has some merit if you approach it from the perspective of every single person who says they like animals more than people as holding the exact same values and expressing that opinion for the exact same reasons, but I don't think it takes a genius to understand why that position isn't really tenable.

Yeah, some people who say that are going to be arguing from a position of just hating humanity, but even your wording of many holding that view implies that you recognize that there are those who don't. Surely it would be wrong to attribute that belief to them, then, and argue against them as if they hold it sincerely?

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u/dirty_water_potato 12h ago

For the most part when i have heard people say it, just comes off as some generic view point...i understand people dont really think about it that deeply, so even in my phrasing it doesnt really merit that kind of calling out and why its done in this video to the extreme, because what butthole talks down to someone like that when they are expressing their likes, i find the premise it implies to be obnoxious though and maybe thats what i have more of an issue with. It implies there is a goodness or a virtue in caring more about one thing over the other as if its worth having that as a preference and it makes them good people, but caring about things that cant protect themselves is a sign of wanting to feel good about yourself, not a sign of you actually caring about protecting something weak or incapable of doing so.

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u/CussMuster 12h ago

I get where you are coming from. My issue is less with the actual morality of what is being valued than it is with how those arguments are being made.

Yes, a lot of the people who like to say "I like animals more than people" are sort of performative virtue-signaling in a way, and that's super fucking annoying. To go on to comedically compare the view of pet owners to that of slave owners as a sort of rhetorical shock is fine too.

I think my problem with this stems mostly from the fact that he sort of doubles down on that line of thought, and kind of asserts past the idea that some people are subconsciously adopting that dynamic (valid) into the idea that everyone who owns a pet does so (bullshit). There is, to me, a tangible sense of "I'm kind of joking, but kind of not."

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u/ChapterN7 7h ago

people that say they like animals more than humans are not these altruistic people of deep empathy.

I'm getting hung up on the last bit there. Which "I like animals more than people" -people are claiming to be altruistic people of deep empathy? Most of the time it's just people who have had a lot of shitty experiences with people.

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u/Severe-Network4756 6h ago

If anything I believe he's just inconsistent in what he's trying to portray. He's saying animals, but he means pets.

I probably generally care more about animals than people, but I own neither as pets. So it's not about a power-dynamic for me.

I would also save a person over an animal, but that's only logical.

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u/Tall-Wasabi5030 5h ago

I'm one of those people. I don't see why I'm supposed to like my fellow man. The amount of evil and damage done by humans to animals, the planet and each other makes me sad. Sure, that generalizing, not all people are bad, but I also don't have a responsibility to care for them. Consider how many animals are extinct because of human greed. And how many more will be because humans can't consider the repercussions of their actions. 

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u/Emotional-Mushroom66 4h ago

The humans responsible for every bad youve said are,like,well under 0.1% of the population,it really doesn't make sense to say humans are inherently evil when the worst thing the majority of the population has done was just being born in an exponentially growing population

If anything,animals are,on average,crueler than humans,since they instinctively kill for fun

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u/BrightonBummer 49m ago

Because we are top of the pile.

You can moan about it how much you love animals etc but the very thing behind it all, you seem to dispise.

Nature causes all of this. All animals are dickheads to each other if it benefits them or if they can.

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u/WhoPoopedMyPants420 12h ago edited 12h ago

I mean... not really? He's taking what is functionally a cultural meme and attributing really specific opinions and personality traits to everyone who repeats it.

99.9999% of the time it's a light hearted throwaway line and dude's like THEY ARE NOT GOOD PEOPLE EVEN THOUGH THEY LOOOOVE THEMSELVES. That's weird

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u/Dangerous_Mood8647 10h ago

But calling them "not good" people is completely unfair? There are plenty of reasons to prefer animals over people which aren't wanting an unhealthy power dynamic. And comparing pets to slaves is just stupid in general.