It certainly won't change with that kind of attitude. Don't you want to live a peaceful life and be free from your baser instincts? I believe most people do, and if they don't, the mission of those who have education and means should be to show the way in that direction, instead of shrugging off the worst things and excusing them on "monkeys", which IMO is insulting to monkeys.

▲

tornadofart 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The reflex to assign our morally wrong behaviour to the animal part in us is quite ironic. I just don't see jellyfish building concentration camps.

▲

kergonath 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It’s a defense mechanism. Something we like to tell to convince ourselves that we are not as bad as they are.

▲

altmanaltman 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Yeah they just use their tentacles to catch prey and bring it into their body cavity, where they feed on and defecate out of the same opening. Maybe they don't because they lack the intellect to do so, not because they have any sense of morality.

▲

NonHyloMorph 7 hours ago | parent [-]

Well not sure where the disgust for jellyfish is coming from but there isn't really much of a moral argument here. What you are saying is akin to: look you just ate a burger, what's next–the holocaust?

(The organisation of the functioning of bodily orifices of the organism isn't really at all relevant for that. One might also add, that in the case of the burger, there might actually be an argument for some structural analogy that depends on the origin of the meat in a process of captivity and killing, that is organized in an industrial fashion..)

	▲	satvikpendem 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Vegans actually do say that but I get your point, not sure what the parent is getting at either, if jellyfish were to have the intellect and dexterity I still wouldn't see why they'd build camps.

▲

altmanaltman 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Of course, we all want to live peaceful lives and be free from our baser instincts, but the entire society that allows you to live a "peaceful life" is based on exploitation and war. Just because you don't see it at home doesn't mean you don't profit/benefit from human violence and exploitation.

As for my comment on "monkeys":

1. Larger primates like chimpanzees are known predators that hunt and consume smaller monkeys, specifically targeting babies

2. In the famous Gombe Chimpanzee War (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gombe_Chimpanzee_War), a once-unified community split into two factions; over four years, one group systematically hunted down and killed every male member of the other.

3. In captive or introduced settings, groups may relentlessly bully "outsiders" who do not know the social norms, preventing them from eating or resting.

4. Non-lactating females may steal an infant from its mother and refuse to give it back, holding it until the baby dies of starvation or dehydration.

"Insulting to monkeys" is only an idea when you anthromorphize monkeys from the actual animals they are to something like Rafiki from Lion King. Nothing is insulting to monkeys because they don't understand the meaning of insult or care about it. They're raw animals and so are human beings.

If you look at the world around you today and think "yes, this is the result of people wanting to live a peaceful life" then I would say you're not being realistic.

	▲	defrost 8 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Chimpanzee behaviour is chimpanzee behaviour. Aspects of that behaviour appear in the behaviour of other primates, but not all primate groups have identical behaviours. Chimpanzee behaviours also vary by troop and circumstances, just as might be expected from social behaviours. Such behaviours _exist_, but they may not in fact be optimal, inevitable, etc. Perhaps chimpanzees behave as they do 'cause the bonobo's didn't invite them to the cool parties.