• NounsAndWords@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    I’m always mildly concerned about how shocked people are about animals being conscious beings with feelings. Do people really think we are mentally that different from other animals with brains?

    • theneverfox@pawb.social
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      5 days ago

      I’m more concerned that people believe it’s rare, in both humans and the animal kingdom

      Predators will share territory if there’s enough to go around, even forming close relationships across species, sometimes even raising their young together

      Empathy is the natural state, unless there’s enough scarcity. Humans are naturally generous, unless we’re raised in an environment of eternal artificial scarcity…

      • Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works
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        5 days ago

        All those rich bastards that are not generous at all must have been raised in a lot of artificial scarcity then. Really artificial since most of them grew up well to do as well.

        • PugJesus@lemmy.worldOP
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          5 days ago

          They spend all their damn lives not even fully comprehending they’re not living in scarcity, because the only resources they’ve ever been taught to focus on are those which are inherently scarce - competing for attention, fame, social status, etc.

        • theneverfox@pawb.social
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          5 days ago

          Unironically, yes. Daddy’s approval, respect from their peers, relationships based on you and not your money, even basic self respect- they’re raised chasing money to fill the hole, to see it as the value of a person, of themselves

          The ones that aren’t cursed with this artificial scarcity? They quietly live their lives however they like, they’re not trying to nickel and dime their way for more. You don’t hear about them much, because why would a mentally healthy person put themselves through that for no reward? Any of them could buy a nice house (or a dozen), pretend to be upper middle class, and live whatever kind of life they want. They could live out of 5 Star hotels and be waited on hand and foot. They could buy their way into fame as an actor or a musician

          It always strikes me as absurd - we’re destroying the planet, and none of us are happy - not even the billionaires benefiting from it. Their family lives are a mess, they’re hated (or idolized for things they’re not), and especially now, they probably live in fear of being targeted walking down the street

      • uis@lemm.ee
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        5 days ago

        Predators will share territory if there’s enough to go around, even forming close relationships across species, sometimes even raising their young together

        Some predators(and scavengers) have special move “Recruit!”, which allows them to invite members of another guild(species) into their party.

        https://youtu.be/QaKwqsSIbIo

    • PugJesus@lemmy.worldOP
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      5 days ago

      To be fair, with academic types running experiments like this, the question is usually more along the lines of “At what point does instinct become empathy as we would recognize it?”, and depending on how high the criteria is set for empathy there, the level of premeditation may be geniunely surprising in some animals.