Yeah, also this disgust and horror towards parasites is how we evolved. The Guinea worm is the extreme example of how bad it can get, but every parasite takes nutrients from us for no benefit to us, often causing discomfort in the process. Meanwhile we don’t feel that way towards predators because our response to predators is to get the fuck away, or to sympathize as we also prey. But disgust makes sense when the mechanism to defend yourself is to avoid letting it into your body.
Comment on spite
PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee 2 months ago
I feel like the enraged reactions of the parisitologists is a bit toxic tbch
Like there’s a reason why those animals are so reviled, and it’s because those behaviors when replicated by humans are some of the most horrifically abusive things imagineable to do to other people.
Yeah that’s just how they evolved and it’s not like they can choose to behave non-parasitically, but getting mad at people for empathizing against it the same way they do when a raptor carries off a screaming bunny or a pack of tigers mauls a baby goat is kinda missing the entire point of how empathy works.
It’s not rational, it’s not their fault that this is how they survive and reproduce, but it’s not fair to get mad at people for having negative reactions to those behaviors just because you happen to think it’s neat for whatever reason.
Sure try to raise awareness for what you love, but naming a family of wasps that reproduce by basically stab r*ping other bugs, injecting them with eggs that hatch and begin eating their organs in order of least vital to most, giving them turbo aids in the process, and then exploding them when they’re ready to take flight for themselves, after a guy who vocally did not think highly of those creatures as an act of spite for daring to not have too high an opinion of stab r*ping things and eating them alive from the inside, is just a level of immaturity on par with the guy who documented the sexual behavior of penguins in ancient greek to avoid the lowly common folk having access to such vulgarity.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world 2 months ago
watersnipje@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
What is this about penguin literature in ancient Greek?
ironhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Penguins are rapey, one of the first to study and record penguin activity didn’t think "unlearned"people were fit to read such “filth”.
Catfish@lemmygrad.ml 2 months ago
I would say you’re for the most part correct but we should all be very well aware of the dangers of our anthropomorphizing of animals. These negative reactions in the public tend to lead to horrible things being done to organisms like sharks and bugs that are important to their ecosystems and the world as a whole.
Projecting human standards of life and morality onto other organisms is inappropriate and a net-harm for both humanity and animals. People doing this behavior would do well to be reminded of how most of their favorite animals like cats, dogs, ducks, goats, etc. reproduce in ways that would be considered absolutely horrifying to our human cultures.
wellee@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Right, they had me at hyena, lost me at parasites lol