this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2023
31 points (66.3% liked)

Unpopular Opinion

6295 readers
200 users here now

Welcome to the Unpopular Opinion community!


How voting works:

Vote the opposite of the norm.


If you agree that the opinion is unpopular give it an arrow up. If it's something that's widely accepted, give it an arrow down.



Guidelines:

Tag your post, if possible (not required)


  • If your post is a "General" unpopular opinion, start the subject with [GENERAL].
  • If it is a Lemmy-specific unpopular opinion, start it with [LEMMY].


Rules:

1. NO POLITICS


Politics is everywhere. Let's make this about [general] and [lemmy] - specific topics, and keep politics out of it.


2. Be civil.


Disagreements happen, but that doesn’t provide the right to personally attack others. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Please also refrain from gatekeeping others' opinions.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Shitposts and memes are allowed but...


Only until they prove to be a problem. They can and will be removed at moderator discretion.


5. No trolling.


This shouldn't need an explanation. If your post or comment is made just to get a rise with no real value, it will be removed. You do this too often, you will get a vacation to touch grass, away from this community for 1 or more days. Repeat offenses will result in a perma-ban.



Instance-wide rules always apply. https://legal.lemmy.world/tos/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

This opinion is based on reading people's thoughts on the internet and remembering what I was taught in my own time in school (where they essentially stumbled into teaching that humans were some kind of 'peak' of the evolutionary process)

I think people have waaaaayyyy too much faith in human intelligence and it's leading to the destruction of the world.

1- People keep thinking a scientist or a 'rich entrepreneur' is going to come up with some magic bullet to save the world, if we taught more about how other animals have tools, language, larger and older and more complex brain structures than us - People might realize it's similar to believing that dolphin will arise from the sea with some idea to stop climate change

2- we keep participating in these systems that have been created under the assumption that we are 'making progress'. I would argue that the minority of human invention represents real progress.

3- It leads to undervaluing the earth and taking it for granted. We worship ourselves as gods (literally). Almost everything you have wasn't invented by humans. It was the result of billions of years of selective design. Yet we teach as if things we harvest from nature were 'invented' by humans. In reality, we often have no way to produce or even of conceive of these things without a natural example.

Thanks for reading

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] WheeGeetheCat@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

okay why doesnt the oral histories of other species count? They seem to pass down tradition and behavior for just as long, and we cannot observe their inner beliefs about more than that. So why are you assuming only humans do it?

Cetaceans have a structure in their brain that we don't have that MIGHT allow them to experience life as a group. That is different than internet but not WORSE just because it doesnt require an external tool. Why are you obesssed with a way of being that 'CHANGES THE WORLD' so that you go extinct?

We'll agree that our 'tool intelligence' doesn't make us wise at least

[–] Redditiscancer789@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

You're the one arguing animals are smarter because they passed down history orally. Yes some of humanity's tools have impacted the environment but we also have the capability to save not only ourselves but literally every other species. No single animal ever comes close to this. Period. Call it a god or savior complex, fine, but the truth remains humans are the only species we have ever encountered in the known universe with that kind of power and potential.

As to your evidence of cetaceans, I'm not sure that matters considering it's all hypothetical unproven. You're trying to weigh something that we can actually confirm against abstract conjuncture like they're on the same level. I might be a millionaire some day, does that mean I should spend like I am one now?

[–] WheeGeetheCat@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

we also have the capability to save not only ourselves but literally every other species

yet to be shown. We assume we can turn this around

[–] Redditiscancer789@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Until we're all dead, its the truth.