Now I’m not sure if this is the majority of people or not, but the majority of people whom I have asked about it have said they would rather see a person in pain than an animal. My question is…why? What motivates humans to care more about kitties and puppies than other humans?
For me, helplessness. I would also think it depends upon the situation. Would I risk my life in a burning building to save a dog? No not normally unless its mine or I know it. I would not hesitate to save a human. But, if a human is burned it can get medical help, a dog is generally killed/put down if it is burned. Its life has less value. So perhaps sympathy for that which has no choice and no voice makes people more sympathetic towards animals.
I think I feel similarly to Kris on this. Also, I think maybe we don’t give people enough credit in the innocence department. We’re incredibly hapless or guileless really - just as much as animals are in some ways. We just think we’re a lot smarter and therefore less deserving of sympathy. I’m talking about the troubles people get themselves into.
I’ve seen a husband smash his wife in the face with a broken bear bottle, blood everywhere.
people who see these things usually do care more about other humans, if they don’t, they are wretched people not worth as much as the insects we routinely step on.
if a person cares more about a cat then say, a suffering child or woman, then they are stupid, ignorant and probably have mental problems, plenty of human children are helpless like little animals.
Do we really need a flamethrower like Cyrene here?
I say our label of animals is one based on human superficiality and primitive categories.
We are all one. judging another creature based on looks is biased and backwards thinking.
We feel more for animals because we know that we’ve wronged them and that we are evil in comparison to their authenticity and goodness.
its not a flame its a valid point, if someone would rather watch a human suffer then another animal suffer, I have every moral justification to say they ARE A PATHETIC PERSON. Its not a ‘flame’ its just simply the truth.
If you find it easier to watch a human suffering then a cat suffering, you are a bad person with mental issues. Sorry if you find it uncomfortable to hear.
Do we need people like you here? too polite to mention when someone says somthing seriously fucked up and morally questionable? The very notion that you’re taking more issue with what I said, then the original claim, that some of these people find it harder to watch an animal suffer, is just pathetic.
Someone who would have more problem watching a nonhuman animal suffer are degraded humans, lacking some basic humanity. When you watch a child suffer and die from cancer or ANY HUMAN BEING WHO IS CONSISTANTLY SELF-AWARE, and then say that you’d rather watch that person suffer then an animal, you are missing A GIANT PIECE OF YOUR HUMANITY.
No, we need more serious thinkers with beards and glasses on the tips of their noses, looking like thinkers when their just mediocre minds trying to appear thoughtful and desperately needing to remain acceptable and average.
I am disappointed that you even accepted the concept of an animal.
Is this category not a generalization based on superficial criteria and sensual information?
We both know you aren’t any different than an animal.
Hey your buddy Ade made another pile of shit in another thread…Want a smell?
I don’t even know what this means, we are definatly animals as well as all other animals, but we’re mentally and cognitively very unique and different with most other animals, even the most intelligent/self-aware species next to humans, you can’t even compare the human animal to other animals in terms of cognitive prowess (of the type that we have at least).
It would be nice to see humans/animals talked about without the distinction needing to be made, but maybe people are just to lazy to type “the human animal” or “humans compared to other animals” and just type ‘humans and animals’. Who knows though, someone once told me “I’ve never seen an animal riding another animal’s back!” (when watching a bird riding on a cow’s back).
How the guy missed HUMANS AND HORSES, I don’t know.
on the thread note:
Some rhesus monkeys and chimps are more self-aware then badly autistic adults, they have more theory of mind (awareness of the minds of others) if you want to compare that to watching a monkey or animal suffer, thats a case that could be made.
=D> 
Ah well satire from the Satyr eludes you.
I say that to base our generalizations, as faust and his ilk have so eloquently pointed out, on sensual interpretations of phenomena and using superficial criteria is blasphemy and primitive.
Is an animal different than us and inferior to us or do we just think it is because we fear it?
And yes sexual attraction is culturally produced.
Welsco0me to the desert of the real.
I say we reconnect to our authentic self as an asexual, emtiness awaiting the rediscovery of the real world behind all this superficial crap.
God is great.
You know, it really does somtimes, hahaha. 
I don’t even know how would could ask the question? Inferior to what, whats the comparison being made? Inferior to humans in which way? Even mentally animals are not ‘inferior’ they are just adapted to different tasks. Mentally my cat can do calculations that I couldn’t do if I spent a month with a calculator, but his brain makes the calculations instantly as he makes a five foot jump and runs along a super-thin walkway. The agility of cats (which is breath-taking to watch) happens only because their minds make accurate calculations about ‘time’/space.
That being said humans should/do on average care more about other humans, because we’ have adaptations that should almost force us to, but even besides THAT, there are plenty of reasons why we could say that we should care about human X (if they are a decent person) compared with individual of species X, unless the nonhuman animal shows more cognitive awareness like in the case of say, autistic individuals.
Is this all satire? I haven’t kept up with a lot of posts lately. Both these statements are certainly false, but i’ll assume its satire. 
If you stick an injured animal, say a cat with a missing leg, with a painkiller, their suffering ends, as soon as the medication kicks in. A human given a painkiller with its leg torn off is still going to be suffering in so many horrible ways mentally and otherwise that the comparison CANNOT be made.
Inferior in the one way man is different than animals.
Intelligence.
The ability to project self accurately using abstractions, models, patterns and awareness.
Regardless of whether or not that animal is vicious, we are unable to communicate with them as we are with humans. And so, our entire perception of them develops differently. WE believe that the human race is the most intelligent and able. And so, anything that passes below our standards is unwillingly committed to an innocent stand. Our inability to understand something other than ourselves is what puts us in a state of trepidation when it comes to ‘its’ pain.
The unknown is what scares us above all else.
Cyrene - you say, “if a person cares more about a cat then say, a suffering child or woman, then they are stupid…”
That is your argument?
Nice one.
Faust that is obviously not the point I am trying to make, so stop being so oblivious on purpose, it doesn’t help your case any.
What I said is that if someone can literally watch a human suffer and handle it easier opposed to a nonhuman animal, then there is SOMTHING WRONG WITH THEM. (At least, if that is semi-consistantly the case). Perhaps if there was a mass-murderer who was not insane, and knew what they were doing was wrong, but still did it anyway, maybe watching that person suffer over a cat would be accecptable.
What I am saying is that average people, for most people, it isn’t easier to watch humans suffer compared to nonhhuman animals, if THIS IS THE CASE.
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There is most likely somthing wrong with you, humans come pre-equipped with mental mec hanisms so that they value other humans above ANIMALS. You are probably lacking a part of your basic humanity.
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It IS not a ‘stupid’ choice because implying such would suggest it was thought out to SOME EXTENT, its not, its an emotional statement that flies in the face of reason.
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You are a bad person lacking basic moral values if you can tolerate watching a human suffering more then a nonhuman animal.
Is this simple enough for you faust? If you can watch a human child or adult die of cancer, or die from being beaten, or die from a shattered bottle to the face, easier then A CAT WITH SIMILIAR INJURIES or any other nonhuman animal. YOU ARE A PATHETIC HUMAN, lacking basic HUMAN values.
There, do you understand now? The very idea that you even questioned my statement is absurd, people should AND DO care more about other humans on average.
And if you had a 1foot long piece of glass impaling your lung and you were trying to crawl to help, and someone chose to pick the GORILLA beside you with a foot of glass in its lung, you’d probably get the fucking idea. People who can tolerate human suffering more then animal suffering, generally DO NOT VALUE HUMAN LIFE AS MUCH AS THEY SHOULD.
Its the idiotic creed of animal freedom fighters who end up firebombing building and hurting people to free animals, most people with those kind of sensibilities end up doing or saying CRAZY THINGS, because its a fucked up crazy belief to begin with.
Cyrene, I have staked no position on the issue - only on you. For all you know, i agree with your conclusions. But you haven’t given any reasons. It’s not an argument. You say that a person who disagrees with you is stupid, but you haven’t said why this is so.
Is that simple enough for you?
I’m pretty sure I explained why, massive cognitive differences for one.
Okay, humans come pre-equipeed with some mechanism for empathy for other humans above other species. How you know this, you don’t say. Just how this is subverted, you don’t say. It’s just a made-up premise.
Then there is your “moral” premise - also unargued for. No relation to the previous premise.
That’s not an argument.
Which is fine. You don’t need an argument. You can type just about anything you want to here. You can even claim that anything you type in here shows you to be smarter than those who disagree.
But I am reading this. And it’s not an argument for anything. That you don’t know this says something, too.