3 ms·

It’s surprising how much this headline affects me. Who doesn’t like penguins? And seals are nice, but penguins are so likeable. We’ve really ruined everything.

nbbaier 7mo ago
This is the exact same reaction I had
threethirtytwo 7mo ago
[flagged]
- metabagel 7mo ago
  Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb (Recorded at Live 8) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_4uEaZQ2Kg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_4uEaZQ2Kg
- p-e-w 7mo ago
  About 15 years ago, I saw on the news in Europe that 8 students had been shot at some random high school in a random US state. Having been conditioned by my environment to perceive such events as important, I turned to my friend and said “Man, 8 students were shot at a high school in the States!” He asked me “What am I supposed to do with that information?” That response changed my life.
  - threethirtytwo 7mo ago
    How did it change your life?
    - p-e-w 7mo ago
      It made me realize that “important events” are meaningless empathy theater, with the goal of desensitizing people until they care more about random folks dying on the other side of the planet than about the person sitting next to them on the bench.
      - threethirtytwo 7mo ago
        It’s almost theater to care… the car accident rate is mass slaughter on a scale that dwarfs every school shooting on the planet yet nobody gives two shits. A lot of it is posing.
      - Arodex 7mo ago
        So, of course, after that "realization", now you do care about the person sitting next to you on the bench?
  - Arodex 7mo ago
    >“What am I supposed to do with that information?” ...Feel some sorrow? Think a bit about what could cause such a thing? Because one day, it may happen at your kid's school... And it may be your own kid. An absence of both empathy and curiosity aren't exactly a response to be proud of. An unconscious life. The kind that leads to, one day, spouting the standard response: "I never imagined it could happen to me".
    - p-e-w 7mo ago
      Sorrow for people you don’t know? That’s a category error, and soundbites like that are a big part of the reason why many people now find it difficult to feel genuine sorrow.
      - Arodex 7mo ago
        Sorrow for your human brethren isn't a category error or a soundbite. It is basic decency. Or do you care only about your tribe? You can even feel something for animals. But thank you for another confirmation that the prevailing mindset in America today isn't the Western tradition of Humanism, but a regression towards raw egoism and naked psychopathy. Elon "Empathy is a weakness" Musk, Kristi "I shot my misbehaving puppy" Noem, Trump...
        threethirtytwo 7mo ago
        Stop posing and pretending you care. You don't have the basic decency to care yourself. Don't go accusing others.
timdiggerm 7mo ago
It's not as though people intentionally made these endangered because they have insufficient love for penguins. We have unintentionally done it because we have insufficient love (care) for them and many, many other things, creatures, people, etc.
- pstuart 7mo ago
  It's because the people who get rich off of fossil fuels are in control, and they are willing to continue this damage as long as it adds to their personal fortunes. We could "manhattan project" ourselves out of this mess if we wanted to. China, in a sense, is doing just that.
metabagel 7mo ago
Also this... "Trump Administration Seals Extinction Fate for Rice’s Whale in Offshore Drilling Decision" https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2026/03/trump-administration-seals-extinction-fate-rice-s-whale-offshore-drilling https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2026/03/trump-admi...
Qem 7mo ago
I get a bit of this looming feeling every time there is discussion about the Awk programming language, because it reminds me we already got the closest thing to a penguin in the nothern hemisphere extinct by the XIX century: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_auk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_auk Hope this time around we do a better job of avoiding complete doom for these species.
- moffkalast 7mo ago
  If a bird can't fly and isn't a super fast runner, they end up as food. Tale as old as time.
  - bluefirebrand 7mo ago
    Have you seen a penguin swim though? They are super fast in water
  - khrbrt 7mo ago
    They're going extinct by habitat loss from climate change.
    - alsetmusic 7mo ago
      Don't worry. That person doesn't believe in climate change. They probably also believe that vaccines kill us. That's why I've been dead for decades.
      - moffkalast 7mo ago
        You're jumping to some big conclusions there, I believe the exact opposite in fact. The IPCC report is always overly conservative and it's gonna be much worse than anyone thinks. Those birds are already dead, as well as most of us cause there's no convincing people to stop driving diesels for two hours every day and flying halfway across the planet for a vacation. I've stopped caring. Burn all the gas you want, blow up as many missiles as you like, it won't make much difference in the end. I bet some emus will survive though, tough bastards.
srean 7mo ago
Seals can be a bundle of cuteness. Leopard seals are impressive, in a different way. This indeed a sad story.
bluefirebrand 7mo ago
I love penguins, and this news has me close to tears My local zoo has a little event during winter where the king penguins get to go for a little walk around outside their enclosure. I've been a few times this year and they are just such fun animals. It has made me want to get involved with the zoo somehow, maybe not working with the animals directly but something. I don't know. It makes me so sad how we humans know that we are messing things up on the planet but we keep doing it anyways because the economy must grow
- yareally 7mo ago
  Cincinnati Zoo? I saw them perform their march the other year. I think they stopped because the flock was getting too old https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2024/01/08/cincinnati-zoo-penguin-parades-tickets/72149154007/ https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2024/01/08/cincinnati-...
  - bluefirebrand 7mo ago
    Calgary Zoo: https://www.calgaryzoo.com/events/penguin-walk/ https://www.calgaryzoo.com/events/penguin-walk/ It's a pretty fun little event. The penguins seem to really enjoy it, they're always checking out the crowd
    - yareally 7mo ago
      That's really cool! If I'm up near Calgary in the future I'm definitely checking that out. I miss the penguin march they would do here, but I understand why they stopped
      - bluefirebrand 7mo ago
        It's definitely worth the stop. The zoo here is pretty cool, even if the penguins don't go for their walk The Penguin walk doesn't run all year, something like Nov-March. It's ended for this year unfortunately

nbbaier 7mo ago

This is the exact same reaction I had

threethirtytwo 7mo ago

[flagged]

metabagel 7mo ago
Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb (Recorded at Live 8) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_4uEaZQ2Kg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_4uEaZQ2Kg
p-e-w 7mo ago
About 15 years ago, I saw on the news in Europe that 8 students had been shot at some random high school in a random US state. Having been conditioned by my environment to perceive such events as important, I turned to my friend and said “Man, 8 students were shot at a high school in the States!” He asked me “What am I supposed to do with that information?” That response changed my life.
- threethirtytwo 7mo ago
  How did it change your life?
  - p-e-w 7mo ago
    It made me realize that “important events” are meaningless empathy theater, with the goal of desensitizing people until they care more about random folks dying on the other side of the planet than about the person sitting next to them on the bench.
    - threethirtytwo 7mo ago
      It’s almost theater to care… the car accident rate is mass slaughter on a scale that dwarfs every school shooting on the planet yet nobody gives two shits. A lot of it is posing.
    - Arodex 7mo ago
      So, of course, after that "realization", now you do care about the person sitting next to you on the bench?
- Arodex 7mo ago
  >“What am I supposed to do with that information?” ...Feel some sorrow? Think a bit about what could cause such a thing? Because one day, it may happen at your kid's school... And it may be your own kid. An absence of both empathy and curiosity aren't exactly a response to be proud of. An unconscious life. The kind that leads to, one day, spouting the standard response: "I never imagined it could happen to me".
  - p-e-w 7mo ago
    Sorrow for people you don’t know? That’s a category error, and soundbites like that are a big part of the reason why many people now find it difficult to feel genuine sorrow.
    - Arodex 7mo ago
      Sorrow for your human brethren isn't a category error or a soundbite. It is basic decency. Or do you care only about your tribe? You can even feel something for animals. But thank you for another confirmation that the prevailing mindset in America today isn't the Western tradition of Humanism, but a regression towards raw egoism and naked psychopathy. Elon "Empathy is a weakness" Musk, Kristi "I shot my misbehaving puppy" Noem, Trump...
      - threethirtytwo 7mo ago
        Stop posing and pretending you care. You don't have the basic decency to care yourself. Don't go accusing others.

timdiggerm 7mo ago

It's not as though people intentionally made these endangered because they have insufficient love for penguins. We have unintentionally done it because we have insufficient love (care) for them and many, many other things, creatures, people, etc.

pstuart 7mo ago
It's because the people who get rich off of fossil fuels are in control, and they are willing to continue this damage as long as it adds to their personal fortunes. We could "manhattan project" ourselves out of this mess if we wanted to. China, in a sense, is doing just that.

metabagel 7mo ago

Also this... "Trump Administration Seals Extinction Fate for Rice’s Whale in Offshore Drilling Decision" https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2026/03/trump-administration-seals-extinction-fate-rice-s-whale-offshore-drilling https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2026/03/trump-admi...

Qem 7mo ago

I get a bit of this looming feeling every time there is discussion about the Awk programming language, because it reminds me we already got the closest thing to a penguin in the nothern hemisphere extinct by the XIX century: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_auk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_auk Hope this time around we do a better job of avoiding complete doom for these species.

moffkalast 7mo ago
If a bird can't fly and isn't a super fast runner, they end up as food. Tale as old as time.
- bluefirebrand 7mo ago
  Have you seen a penguin swim though? They are super fast in water
- khrbrt 7mo ago
  They're going extinct by habitat loss from climate change.
  - alsetmusic 7mo ago
    Don't worry. That person doesn't believe in climate change. They probably also believe that vaccines kill us. That's why I've been dead for decades.
    - moffkalast 7mo ago
      You're jumping to some big conclusions there, I believe the exact opposite in fact. The IPCC report is always overly conservative and it's gonna be much worse than anyone thinks. Those birds are already dead, as well as most of us cause there's no convincing people to stop driving diesels for two hours every day and flying halfway across the planet for a vacation. I've stopped caring. Burn all the gas you want, blow up as many missiles as you like, it won't make much difference in the end. I bet some emus will survive though, tough bastards.

srean 7mo ago

Seals can be a bundle of cuteness. Leopard seals are impressive, in a different way. This indeed a sad story.

bluefirebrand 7mo ago

I love penguins, and this news has me close to tears My local zoo has a little event during winter where the king penguins get to go for a little walk around outside their enclosure. I've been a few times this year and they are just such fun animals. It has made me want to get involved with the zoo somehow, maybe not working with the animals directly but something. I don't know. It makes me so sad how we humans know that we are messing things up on the planet but we keep doing it anyways because the economy must grow

yareally 7mo ago
Cincinnati Zoo? I saw them perform their march the other year. I think they stopped because the flock was getting too old https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2024/01/08/cincinnati-zoo-penguin-parades-tickets/72149154007/ https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2024/01/08/cincinnati-...
- bluefirebrand 7mo ago
  Calgary Zoo: https://www.calgaryzoo.com/events/penguin-walk/ https://www.calgaryzoo.com/events/penguin-walk/ It's a pretty fun little event. The penguins seem to really enjoy it, they're always checking out the crowd
  - yareally 7mo ago
    That's really cool! If I'm up near Calgary in the future I'm definitely checking that out. I miss the penguin march they would do here, but I understand why they stopped
    - bluefirebrand 7mo ago
      It's definitely worth the stop. The zoo here is pretty cool, even if the penguins don't go for their walk The Penguin walk doesn't run all year, something like Nov-March. It's ended for this year unfortunately