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Imagine if someone asked "What are the biggest threats to white race?". That would be recognized as a racist question and racism is seen as a bad thing. For so

Imagine if someone asked "What are the biggest threats to white race?". That would be recognized as a racist question and racism is seen as a bad thing. For some weird reason racism is bad but speciesism is good. These types of articles are typical specisist garbage. What about threats to other species? Why are members of homo sapiens species superior to other species? This wouldn't fly when it comes to racism since people now recognize that racial superiority is a bogus concept.

rnernento 8y ago
I rank this guy as a pretty big threat... This sounds like something a James Bond villain says right before he releases the virus that kills 90% of the human population.
- klaudius 8y ago
  No, man I'm not a threat. Your remark reminds me of a common situation of someone being accused of being a race traitor by a white supremacist.
  - rnernento 8y ago
    I guess if I'm being honest I'm kind of a human supremacist. I think most of us are. That's why we eat other animals. I'm not saying I don't feel guilty about it but I also don't feel guilty about swatting mosquitoes. Also my comment wasn't meant to be serious...
    - AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
      I don't consider myself a human supremacist, but I also don't eat other animals even if some of my quality of life is ultimately sourced from their suffering. I think it is just as foolish to assume that humans are more deserving, more important, and more valuable than any other life simply because you are a part of that group as it is to assume the same about your race.
      - Retra 8y ago
        "It's foolish to assume $2 is more valuable than $1 just because it has more purchasing power." Humans are more valuable because we have more power. That may not be a suitably saccharine notion for your delicate moral sensibilities, but reality isn't really designed to appeal to those anyway.
        AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
        Someone has a reading comprehension problem. Here, let me help you: "I think it is just as foolish to assume that humans are more deserving, more important, and more valuable than any other life simply because you are a part of that group as it is to assume the same about your race." > Humans are more valuable because we have more power. And Nazis were more valuable than Poles for the same reason? There are reasonable arguments to be made about why we should consider human life more valuable than other life, but you're not making them.
        Retra 8y ago
        You grossly misinterpret what I mean by "power", because it has nothing to do with the differences between Nazis and Poles, as both of them have the same aggregate ability to make decisions.
rat9988 8y ago
This article is interest for me because I'm a human and I'm interested in threats to humanity. Would it have been about white people only, I would have asked why white human only, because we are all of the same specie and there is, to my knowledge, no threat to white human survival that doesn't apply to the others. And if there is such a threat then that article wouldn't be racist. Moreover I believe that I'm superior to the other animals.
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49531 8y ago
This is one of the strangest comments I've ever read on hn. It's almost like saying "Why is it ok to worry about death, but when someone is worried about hair loss no one cares?". I think existential issues tend to carry a bit more weight than aesthetic ones. > racial superiority is a bogus concept Ok sure, but apathy towards extinction isn't a bogus concept.
Retra 8y ago
The reason isn't "weird", it is because humans are the ones making both the decisions and the articles. If some other species wants to publish articles and evaluate what kinds of threats exist to them, then they can do so. If you don't want "specisists garbage," ask your pet hamster to publish instead and get a fair representation. > This wouldn't fly when it comes to racism since people now recognize that racial superiority is a bogus concept. The implication of that is that people of other races are perfectly capable of making these decisions and evaluating the situation. If you want to argue that other species are capable of the same thing... well. Good luck. Dumbest thing I'll read today by far.
AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
You're getting some flak for your comment, and I guess I'm responding because I don't think you deserve it, so I'm willing to take flak too because the idea is pretty on point, at least in a tangential sort of way. There is nothing particularly special or sacred about humanity other than that we happen to belong to that group. If we die out, we die out. The universe goes on just as it will after you as an individual perish, just as it has for everyone who came before you, every species that did, even the stars that went nova creating the elements necessary for you to exist. And whether by the heat death of the universe or simply the inevitability of minuscule probabilities occurring on an infinite timeline, our species is doomed anyway. Should we care about the possibility of human extinction? Absolutely. But should we be willing to go to even the most extreme lengths, say by wiping out the rest of life on earth, to preserve it? I don't think so. I don't believe that ensuring your survival by contributing to creating a world you don't want to live in is a meaningful exercise. Like I said, this is a bit tangential since as far as I know no one is suggesting atrocities as a solution to the many threats we face, I just see this idea of human survival as being the highest priority in the universe often enough to want to offer a dissenting opinion.

rnernento 8y ago

I rank this guy as a pretty big threat... This sounds like something a James Bond villain says right before he releases the virus that kills 90% of the human population.

klaudius 8y ago
No, man I'm not a threat. Your remark reminds me of a common situation of someone being accused of being a race traitor by a white supremacist.
- rnernento 8y ago
  I guess if I'm being honest I'm kind of a human supremacist. I think most of us are. That's why we eat other animals. I'm not saying I don't feel guilty about it but I also don't feel guilty about swatting mosquitoes. Also my comment wasn't meant to be serious...
  - AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
    I don't consider myself a human supremacist, but I also don't eat other animals even if some of my quality of life is ultimately sourced from their suffering. I think it is just as foolish to assume that humans are more deserving, more important, and more valuable than any other life simply because you are a part of that group as it is to assume the same about your race.
    - Retra 8y ago
      "It's foolish to assume $2 is more valuable than $1 just because it has more purchasing power." Humans are more valuable because we have more power. That may not be a suitably saccharine notion for your delicate moral sensibilities, but reality isn't really designed to appeal to those anyway.
      - AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
        Someone has a reading comprehension problem. Here, let me help you: "I think it is just as foolish to assume that humans are more deserving, more important, and more valuable than any other life simply because you are a part of that group as it is to assume the same about your race." > Humans are more valuable because we have more power. And Nazis were more valuable than Poles for the same reason? There are reasonable arguments to be made about why we should consider human life more valuable than other life, but you're not making them.
        Retra 8y ago
        You grossly misinterpret what I mean by "power", because it has nothing to do with the differences between Nazis and Poles, as both of them have the same aggregate ability to make decisions.

rat9988 8y ago

This article is interest for me because I'm a human and I'm interested in threats to humanity. Would it have been about white people only, I would have asked why white human only, because we are all of the same specie and there is, to my knowledge, no threat to white human survival that doesn't apply to the others. And if there is such a threat then that article wouldn't be racist. Moreover I believe that I'm superior to the other animals.

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49531 8y ago

This is one of the strangest comments I've ever read on hn. It's almost like saying "Why is it ok to worry about death, but when someone is worried about hair loss no one cares?". I think existential issues tend to carry a bit more weight than aesthetic ones. > racial superiority is a bogus concept Ok sure, but apathy towards extinction isn't a bogus concept.

Retra 8y ago

The reason isn't "weird", it is because humans are the ones making both the decisions and the articles. If some other species wants to publish articles and evaluate what kinds of threats exist to them, then they can do so. If you don't want "specisists garbage," ask your pet hamster to publish instead and get a fair representation. > This wouldn't fly when it comes to racism since people now recognize that racial superiority is a bogus concept. The implication of that is that people of other races are perfectly capable of making these decisions and evaluating the situation. If you want to argue that other species are capable of the same thing... well. Good luck. Dumbest thing I'll read today by far.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago

You're getting some flak for your comment, and I guess I'm responding because I don't think you deserve it, so I'm willing to take flak too because the idea is pretty on point, at least in a tangential sort of way. There is nothing particularly special or sacred about humanity other than that we happen to belong to that group. If we die out, we die out. The universe goes on just as it will after you as an individual perish, just as it has for everyone who came before you, every species that did, even the stars that went nova creating the elements necessary for you to exist. And whether by the heat death of the universe or simply the inevitability of minuscule probabilities occurring on an infinite timeline, our species is doomed anyway. Should we care about the possibility of human extinction? Absolutely. But should we be willing to go to even the most extreme lengths, say by wiping out the rest of life on earth, to preserve it? I don't think so. I don't believe that ensuring your survival by contributing to creating a world you don't want to live in is a meaningful exercise. Like I said, this is a bit tangential since as far as I know no one is suggesting atrocities as a solution to the many threats we face, I just see this idea of human survival as being the highest priority in the universe often enough to want to offer a dissenting opinion.