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Am I experiencing a profound spiritual desolation or have I not eaten enough for breakfast?
(lemmy.today)
this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2026
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Either all animals have souls or nobody does. Humans are JUST animals with a more complicated social life (in some cases anyways).
I HATE people who think humans are special. That's how we end up with all sorts of evil shit in the world, including people who think they're the most special and get to kill others because skydaddy said so.
That's true but our sense of moral significance is just a part of that social life, and other animals are largely not capable of fully participating, which means that the idea of humans being special has a structural role in our society. If a human kills another human, it means our social structure has failed to protect us and needs to be improved, because if our humanity does not protect us from each other, then nothing plausibly can, it's easy to tell that the other things purporting to offer such protection are flimsy lies. If a human kills a cricket, even if crickets feel pain, that doesn't make waves the same way; other crickets are not going to remember or consider this event, other humans generally won't have to fear the cricket killer may later come for them.
Basically I think it is just really important for our ability to function and succeed as a species that we regard human wellbeing as an exceptional high priority and overriding moral imperative.
Birds mourn the ones that die when killed by humans, yet no one cares. It's not about social structure, it's about considering that some immoral things are acceptable out of convenience.
There's a big reason why genocides are often backed with a "they are animals" justification. It's just an excuse to not care, because everyone knows that animals feel as much as humans but accepting it means changing things, and feeling guilty for even "just" killing a cricket. And humans are stupid egotistical shits that need to constantly feel that they are perfect, so they instead delude themselves into thinking that whatever they don't want to feel empathy for, is just an inferior creature that isn't worth much.
There's a reason why kids killing pets or other animals is a big red flag. There's a reason why it's used so much in horror movies. Everyone knows that it's fundamentally wrong and a sign of mental instability to kill sentient beings, and yet everyone pretends like it's normal as soon as it involves changing their behaviour.
Why is it ok to eat birds that have very developed social intelligence, but not dogs and cats? Because dogs and cats are seen emotionally, birds aren't.
And if you can switch your empathy on and off, you can do it for whatever, and whoever.
What you're describing doesn't allow humans to function, it allows Israel to commit genocide, it allows nazis to get control of the world little by little, and most of the shit of the modern world. Selective empathy is never a good thing, and even prehistoric men had more empathy than the current, "modern" human. That says a lot.
Same for the ones that are killed otherwise, and it doesn't matter how much you care because the natural world is brutal and sad down to its core, we are helpless to change that and if you could expand your empathy to encompass all of it you would go insane. I grew up surrounded by nature and animals and I can't tell you how much I cried over stuff like territorial robins destroying the nest of other robins or the cat bringing me live baby rodents that I sincerely tried but failed to keep alive, or our chickens who all had names, unique personalities and relationships but were just very susceptible to predators, illness, various mishaps and just naturally short lifespan.
Please understand that I am not saying other animals are rightfully regarded as unfeeling machines for which empathy is a mistake to be corrected. It is natural to feel for them, and you're right to say that someone who just doesn't is more of a danger to people, there is a connection there. But what I believe is that if you honestly regard the totality of living things as it really is through the lens of unconditional and boundless empathy, the only possible conclusion is hopeless despair.
This is why there must be a distinction between emotions and our sense of moral significance, because while the former informs the latter there is no guarantee that by itself it will translate into a coherent, achievable intention. The fact that humans are capable of meaningfully coordinating with each other is really important because it is the foundation of what little we can do at all to change the world.
To me, the biggest thing wrong with dehumanizing people to justify abuses against them is that to say someone is not human is a lie, and is a betrayal of humanity. Human unity is probably the most important thing to fight for.
I agree with you but want to stress that we believe Humans have more complicated culture or language or emotional range when we only know how to communicate with other humans about such deep subjects. Animals likely have these same deep facets of life but we do not know how to articulate it for them to know what we are talking about.
When humans can actually speak to an animal we will learn the depths of their experience and can make a better assessment of our difference.
Do we really know that some other animals such as whales aren't able to communicate at the same or more complex level than humans. We haven't cracked their language code ... maybe because are minds are significantly inferior.
My parents were not quite human enough, just needed that one more mutation that gave me my soul