this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2024
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Yeah, I'd like to see the results from the question : I have a gun pointed at your long time childhood friend and one pointed at this cow, now is this cow's life worth the same as your friends life?
A better comparison would be if the human in question was a random dude you pulled off the streets. If this was a cow that I grew up with and shared a bond with, then yeah, I'd obviously pick the cow over some dude I don't know. If it's a childhood friend versus a random cow I don't know? Same thing but in reverse.
I have a gun pointed at your dog and another pointed at a guy that's going around eating people's pets...
You are mixing the rational component of the question in general with the emotional attachments of particular situations. This kind of "I know it in my heart" drive is the same that drives things like racism and xenophobia.
Their point still works though, just reword it for less unnecessary baggage if you prefer.
Do you press the button which saves some random human somewhere in the world, or the button which saves some random cow? I'm pretty sure most people choose the human
Most people would also press a button that will save a random human of their country over a random human from another country. Does that mean people have different value depending on which country they are from?
Well, yes, not surprising at all. It's a monkeysphere thing.
"What do monkeys have to do with war, oppression, crime, racism and even e-mail spam? You'll see that all of the random ass-headed cruelty of the world will suddenly make perfect sense once we go Inside the Monkeysphere."
(That article really changed how I view people.)