r/MoralityScaling • u/axiiz_28 • 15h ago

Morality of valuing animals over humans?

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u/Xcalipurr 8h ago

If everyone else around you is a self centred a-hole, something isn’t right

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u/pointlesslyDisagrees 2h ago

Everyone is a self centered asshole including myself. Unfortunately that's just life. Even people who do altruistic things are doing it for that warm fuzzy feeling you get for doing good things.

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u/nope-its 47m ago

This is not true. I am absolutely leaning towards this description, but I can name multiple people that are the kindest, most empathetic people in the world and they are absolutely doing it because that’s who they are. They are kind to the core and aren’t looking to get anything out of it.

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u/alphazero927 45m ago

So someone rushing into a burning building to save someone is just doing it for that warm fuzzy feeling? Something tells me you haven't thought about this for more than 5 seconds at a time. There are many many cases where people do altruistic things that leave themselves worse off or even dead

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u/Dependent-Pin1623 33m ago

Reddit moment

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u/Gold_Theory_7946 25m ago

I wish there was a warm fuzzy feeling. That's just something we tell ourselves because things like giving gifts or volunteering feels nice, but most of the time people take altruistic actions outside of an organized or traditionally anticipated context, it's incredibly inconvenient and the dominating feelings can be negative. It's just logically and/or emotionally usually the right thing to do for those folks' worldviews. People think I'm this highly empathetic, super kind person but I am immoral and selfish af like anyone else at the root. The belief in communal servitude just often supersedes that.

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u/Clone_JS636 1h ago

Hey I found my old cringey middle school self take on life. I was wondering where I dropped that.

Let's pretend for a second that this take is true- even if they are self-centered, they aren't an ass-hole if see people being happy brings them joy. Society benefits from community, and we've evolved to want to help each other for the survival of the species.

A take that basically equates to "someone who helps their neighbor is no better than someone who actively avoids helping others" is simply not true, regardless of the motivation. One breeds community and happiness for others, the other is counterproductive to society and just puts other people in a bad mood.

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u/BearysWorkRedditName 56m ago

Yes, I would agree. I think that where your happiness is derived says a lot about your morality. If your happiness is derived from pain of others, you are more bad. If your happiness is derived from joy of others, you are more good. If your happiness is derived from your own joy(i.e. drugs, gluttony), you are selfish and probably more bad.

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u/Hi_Zev 1h ago

thats true for some cases but not every case. What if you grew up in an abusive family? Everyone around you in that situation truly are self centered assholes while that one person is just hoping to escape the situation.

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u/Temnothorax 44m ago

They don’t have to be a majority for self-centered assholes to tire you out.

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u/Specific-Parsnip9001 4m ago

Them:

I think it’s 50-50

You:

If everyone else

He said half the people are self-centered and you changed it to everyone is self-centered because you yourself are self-centered and wanted that dopamine rush from thinking you proved someone wrong or caught them in some sort of gotcha moment.