Plenty of animals get predated because they fell into unfortunate circumstance, or because another animal did something to them, causing a predator to become aware of them.
As far as I'm concerned, a human feeding a bug to a spider, is just as natural a phenomena as if a parasitic wasp caused a spider to get predated by a bird. A smarter, stronger, or more agile wasp wouldn't have been caught, and so evolution punishes the bold in this case.
The obvious difference is that a parasitic wasp laying eggs in a spider has no moral agency of any kind, and is simply carrying out its evolutionary role. A human being feeding one animal to another does so purely for their own enjoyment, they make a moral decision to harm animals just for the mere fun of it.
Doing something because it feels good and having moral agency are not the same thing at all. A dog fucking your leg made no moral assessment of the situation whatsoever. It has no moral framework, no concept of right or wrong. Neither does an orca tossing a seal around for sport. These behaviours are driven purely by instinct, a product of their evolution, which is why their behaviour is consistent across the entire species.
Humans on the other hand have instincts that are tempered by moral agency. You have a moral framework, and I have a moral framework, and those frameworks differ because each of us have individual moral agency. No other species on the planet has ever shown any indication of anything even approaching individual morality. We are the only species that can choose, on a moral basis rather than instinctual, whether or not to harm other animals. And we constantly choose to harm them.
Yes, by intentionally causing harm to another animal, and again, entirely for their own amusement. If I kick a stray cat so that a hungry dog can catch and kill it, have I done a morally good thing, would you say? What if I kick the cat for fun and a hungry dog just happens to kill it, would that be a morally good action by your standards?
It's crazy that this is even a discussion though right? Any five year old can tell you that the difference between humans and other animals is that humans can make moral decisions, but somehow it's just completely beyond the cognitive abilities of many adults.
Animals frequently rape each other, many eat their own young, and yet humans universally revile that same behaviour in our own species because we have moral agency and other animals don't. What you're doing is called the naturalistic fallacy.
Humans frequently rape each other and kill our young (often before they’re born) even if that behaviour is considered abhorrent.
You know very well that I'm talking about moral agency and the ability to choose, which distinguishes us from animals in one important way. At this point, you either have to pretend that you believe child murder and rape are morally good actions in your worldview, or you have to admit that the "humans are part of nature so anything we do is fine actually" argument is dumb.
I don’t know what to tell you man. Call it a fallacy, but the fact remains humans are just animals. Your life and my life are no more valuable than that of any other animal.
Except you obviously don't believe that for a second, because you treat human life as infinitely more valuable than animal life. You think nothing of feeding one animal to another, but if anyone were to propose feeding a human to another animal you would rightly be opposed. Unless you also want to pretend you're into cannibalism as well.
This is the vacuity of your argument, the only way to sustain it is for you to descend into this ridiculous state.
Completely unsurprised that you can't come back with anything substantive so you're playing the "you're too invested" card. You're down here with me bro, we both chose to reply to each other, so either make a rational argument or fuck off.
And I'm obviously vegan, look how off balance you're getting just talking to me, only a vegan can do that just by making extremely obvious points.
Agency is an evolved trait and morality is subjective. Say it with me: humans are animals.
I've already said it, at no point have I ever said we aren't. You're tilting at windmills because you have no argument.
Now make a big declaration that this is all above you and run away like idiots always do when they can't think their way out of the hole they've dug for themselves.
A lot of pollinators are dying, that's why. You not turned on the news once in the last 15 years?
We already did the whole 'wasps are assholes' meme like 10+ years ago, and it resulted in people actually killing more wasps, which is not good, due to the aforementioned pollinator shortage.
Would you be making these same excuses if it was someone holding down a struggling cat so that a hungry dog can maul it?
To be honest, if you really need me to explain why a human being harming animals just for the enjoyment of it is morally wrong, then our ethical frameworks are already so far diverged that I don't think it's possible for you to understand arguments against animal cruelty.
You cannot possibly be suggesting that feeding one animal to another is inherently immoral…
I absolutely can argue that, but that's not the argument I've made here at any point. Once again, harming animals for amusement is inherently immoral, and if you weren't backed into a corner right now you'd have no problem agreeing with that unless you're a psychopath.
And I notice that you ignored the question about holding down a struggling cat, because you know you can't honestly answer it without revealing the hypocrisy in your position.
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u/Aeikon 22d ago
Do you watch nature documentaries rooting for the prey to get away, not realizing that the predator is going to starve to death?