jovian Posted April 14, 2015 Share Posted April 14, 2015 Today I have had a long and shocking chat with some Facebook-contacts. In short, these people will save an animal instead of a human baby. They are very clear on this. They think there are too many people on earth, all people are evil, they hate the human race. The chat included many irrational and emotional arguments. My first thought is that, without knowing these people from childhood, they must have had their trust in people / human race destroyed in early childhood... I have not asked, but it is the only reason I can imagine for such hatred against all humanity. They actually hope the human race extinct itself.. sad but true. I want to know more about this, how to best way meet their irrationality with ideas for them to think of, maybe even change?? Listening to Stefans philosophy show for some years, he have had some good thoughts about such people and their arguments. Can someone on this forum help me finding the "best of" , about this topic? I dont know hoe to start searching, really.. best searchterms, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shirgall Posted April 14, 2015 Share Posted April 14, 2015 My theory is that abused people have more empathy for creatures who are wholly dependent on themselves for life, versus distrusting of those who are independent enough to abuse people. In fact, "apathetic to" might be better terminology than "distrusting of". 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drkmdn Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 Today I have had a long and shocking chat with some Facebook-contacts. In short, these people will save an animal instead of a human baby. They are very clear on this. They think there are too many people on earth, all people are evil, they hate the human race. The chat included many irrational and emotional arguments. My first thought is that, without knowing these people from childhood, they must have had their trust in people / human race destroyed in early childhood... I have not asked, but it is the only reason I can imagine for such hatred against all humanity. They actually hope the human race extinct itself.. sad but true. I want to know more about this, how to best way meet their irrationality with ideas for them to think of, maybe even change?? Listening to Stefans philosophy show for some years, he have had some good thoughts about such people and their arguments. Can someone on this forum help me finding the "best of" , about this topic? I dont know hoe to start searching, really.. best searchterms, etc. Extreme amounts of shame and self hate. I also feel this way. I'm in therapy for it... but no... I don't really see average human life as that valuable, really. Certain human life, yes. The average human, no. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Better Future Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 I think your friends should be free to make their own value judgements. Why are humans more valuable than any other species? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan C. Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 They're self-loathing misanthropes. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J. D. Stembal Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 I think your friends should be free to make their own value judgements. Why are humans more valuable than any other species? Suicide is not a violation of the NAP, so yes, they should be encouraged to voluntarily end their human existence if that is their wish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Better Future Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 they should be encouraged to voluntarily end their human existence if that is their wish. OP never said his friends wished to kill themselves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apples and grapes Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 all people are evil, they hate the human race. If all people are evil, then surely they are evil. But by what standard? Surely it cannot be because people violate UPB, because not everybody does; So those who violate UPB are in the same category as those who adhere to it. A rapist is synonymous to a non-rapist. A = non A. It would also not make sense logically for them to argue with you given the evil of people as surly if all people are in the same moral category of evil regardless of actions then 'Save animal over human' is synonymous with 'Save human over animal'. Obviously this is silly, but I'd imagine it is super useful as an emotional defence. i.e. My parents/siblings/self/etc. cannot be considered wrong because, you see, evil is the natural state for everybody. The detachment of moral nature and actions is also interesting, akin to people who say they love x but do not love the way x acts. I don't know how you can have much success in helping someone out who thinks that you're evil, that they're evil, and that regardless of our actions our race is deserving of hatred and extinction. They seem to be in serious need of therapy and perhaps you could suggest it as a possibility. Other than that, I'd suggest not discussing the 'evil of people', 'people should all die' stuff with them as it turns too much to the abstract from the probable pain they had inflicted upon them as children and instead discuss the pain. Like how in FDR2600 Descended From Extraterrestrials... - Sunday Call In Show January 26th, 2014 where Stef wanted to focus on a callers history with distant parents rather then discussing his theory of how aliens aided our evolution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Ed Moran Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 If they were mistreated in infancy, it might make sense that they would empathize with animals but not people. It would probably be very costly and painful for them to empathize with their own experience of infancy. So maybe they are projecting their feelings for their inner-infant/child onto animals, because it is relatively easy to empathize with animals, and they also fit the category of an infant to some degree (depending on the animal) in terms of dependence, lack of a mind, and innocence. So maybe they are getting some ease from empathizing with animals compared to empathizing with their inner-infant/child. I use both terms infant and child because you say they go so far as to even consider a human infant relatively valueless to animals, which may suggest severe mistreatment in infancy, which I think is the most damaging and difficult to process (and morally reprehensible, imo). 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fractional slacker Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Triage is the key. Trying to bring logic and rationality to the most difficult of the non-philosophical, while challenging, is a fools errand. It sounds like they want to manage their empty feelings by instilling them into others. Unless you have a personal reason, I would thank these people for their honesty and choose not associate with them. One question you could toss their way. If they believe what they profess, ask them if they wish you were dead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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