this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2024
268 points (92.1% liked)
Showerthoughts
28680 readers
87 users here now
A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.
Rules
- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- Posts must be original/unique
- Be good to others - no bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia
- Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Most other mammals destroy their offspring if there’s a risk and there a chance of survival for themselves or a smaller amount of offspring.
They can always mate again, that baby is gonna be dead before it has the chance.
Most other mammals? Humans do this too. We’re just advanced enough to do it before it’s actually a baby.
Edit: I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. How is it that people in this thread think humans are never selfish or immoral, and other animals don’t care for their young?
We don’t leave our babies for a predator, we protect them and sacrifice ourselves since others will care for them.
We don’t kill 3 of our 4 offspring so the other can survive.
We don’t eat our young for sustenance.
Sure we cull obvious defects to prevent undue suffering, but at the same we don’t as well.
I’m talking about abortions. Plenty of people have abortions because they can’t afford to have kids or have enough kids already.
Also, people have gone to prison for killing their kids. Don’t think all humans are perfectly moral all the time. We’re still animals.
Also, plenty of other animals sacrifice themselves for their kids. Morality and self sacrifice aren’t unique to humans.
At the same time, people are also forced to carry.
At the same time, some people willingly take non-viable fetuses to term and let the “baby” suffer so they don’t themselves.
My first comment;
Yes there are species that don’t kill their young, than there is hamsters who stress eat their young.
I feel like you’re talking in circles. We can at least agree that some humans kill their young, just like other animals.
Yes, but for vastly different reasons. Almost all mammals but humans destroy non-viable infants, so I don’t get what point you were trying to even discuss here?
The topic being, most other mammals would destroy their young before they died of hunger or thirst, so it’s a uniquely human issue.
If it’s not viable, you don’t need to destroy it. It’s already not viable. You also don’t know why an animal does something. I’ve seen a dog nurse a kitten before. I have no idea what it’s thinking and why it’s doing that.
My point is that you’re putting humans on some pedestal like our behavior is vastly different than the other animals when it’s not. We’re more social than other animals, but we have the same instincts and base behaviors. After all, we are animals.
We definitely are animals but are you saying humans have a natural instinct to eat their young?
No. Neither humans nor other animals have an instinct to eat their young. No one has claimed that’s instinctual. I’m saying that humans have killed their young, just like other animals, and humans have instinctual behaviors, just like other animals.
Some animals are psychopathic and kill all their young. Some humans are psychopathic and kill all their kids. It doesn’t mean that’s instinctual behavior.
And when pushed to the extreme, like starvation, some animals will die, and a few will eat their young. Humans will do the same, some will die and a few will eat their kids.
So you are going to waste precious resources until it dies? Putting the rest of the litter at risk? You have to destroy it, a predator might find it, and your nest as well. Animals know what they are doing.
Because our behavior is vastly different than most species? The social part is maybe what makes us unique? When one family dies, we don’t destroy their young to protect the rest like other species, we adopt them and provide for them. Hence why they can die from hunger and thirst unlike other species……………
Ok so by destroy it, you mean like eating or burying a stillborn? Humans have always buried their stillborn infants. That’s the same behavior.
Humans adopt orphans. Again, you’re assuming animals never display the same behavior. They do! Animals will adopt the abandoned or orphaned young of others. I literally just told you about a dog who nursed a litter of kittens. I saw it. With my own two eyes. You can’t tell me that doesn’t happen because I’ve literally seen it.
And again, you’re ignoring all of the times that humans don’t do what you’re talking about. How many orphans have starved to death in history because no one took them in? Countless.
If you really want to put humans on that pedestal, make room for most other mammalian species, and several non-mammalian species too. Or, you know, just recognize that humans are animals, and our behavior is not too dissimilar from other animals.
If you bury it, that’s a wonderful beacon for predators.
Im done here.