I think so.
Hmm… If someone chooses to perform an action, it must be meaningful, you say? Hmm… tell me, what does it signify when someone puts their pants on their left leg first vs. right leg first, or switches between? What does it signify if someone puts water then toothpaste on their toothbrush vs toothpaste then water? What does it signify if someone trims their right fingernails before their fingernails? There are such things at choices are not meaningful or consequential.
Activity I could have done instead? You make it sound like people are constantly running some sort of computerized cost benefit-analysis so that each action is preplanned and well calculated. If you think so, you’re very wrong. Some actions are spontaneous, irrational, and pointless. The decision to skim a rock across a lake isn’t “meaningful or consequential.” It’s pointless act of idle boredom.
That’s not fair; I didn’t read the emoji.
Well, there’s the part above about you liking and preferring it to other activities. We can start there.
Let’s raise the stakes for a moment to see what I am getting at. If you killed small mammals without any particular cause - they are not pests in your house, they are not trying or succeeding at getting at your food, etc. - this would be considered more problematic to more people. It can even be a sign of mental illness. Now small mammals are closer to us, more likley to elicit empathy and so on. But one might wonder why someone does that. Even you might wonder, despite being a meat eater, pest killer, why someone did that, what their motivation was. You might or might not worry if you came home and found your kid in the backyard stoming on squirrels. Why is this the activity he chooses and not another. Why make even the slight extra effort to kill something when one has no practical motivation to do so?
So while the stakes are lower with insects and the difference between us and them greater, it’s still a question why this activity, however short in time each time, is attractive?
Karpel Tunnel
Philosopher
That is false parallel that might even be dishonest. In the case of a child wanting to kill squirrels, my concern would not be “why is he choosing this activity over others.” It would be, why the hell is killing a squirrel at all? That actually would be cruel, unlike mindlessly stepping on non-sentient ants. Your concern of making a “slight extra effort to kill something” (your words) would not be on my radar. It wouldn’t matter how much effort it took for him, how much energy it expended, or what other “activities” were turned down. You’re fixated on this ridiculous economy of time and effort and missed activities, when YOU are missing the boat by not appreciating why killing a squirrel is messed up. Hint: it has nothing to do with any of the nonsense you mentioned.
So while the stakes are lower with insects and the difference between us and them greater, it’s still a question why this activity, however short in time each time, is attractive?
When someone kill a squirrel, there is DEFINITELY a reason behind it. Killing a squirrel takes a certain type of nerve and morbidity, a lack of empathy, and a disregard for another animal’s pain. Stepping on bugs, on the other hand, is business as usual. They don’t experience those things.