8mo ago

Return to monkey then?

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you can work for food or you can work for tokens then exchange tokens for food but to imagine that every other living thing is just having a lovely time vibing and munching on infinite, freely available grindage while humans are the only species that has to do shit that sucks is just ignorant Rousseau noble savage dumbness
- I think we tend to greatly underestimate how much the average wild animal's life completely sucks. Predators. Disease. Food shortages. Injuries that never fully heal. Teeth...you know what happens to teeth if you never brush them? A lot of animals are just scraping by. You know how most animals have pretty big litters, and quite often too? Yet their population stays roughly the same? Consider the implications of that fact on the survival rate for an average animal.
  
  Wholeheartedly agree. The only thing I'd add is that I think it's in theoretical discussions that we underestimate how much a wild animal's life sucks shit. In the US at least there's enough forest that if a person wanted to get lost and be totally self-reliant they could take an honest shot at it. I think each of us has had that thought deep down in our secret hearts and, when we do, in that particular moment we make a very frank, honest and accurate estimate about how much fun it would be dying of an infection while lying face down in the cold muck. And this coming from a person who prides himself on being "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short."
- The rabbit that my cat brought home today was definitely not vibing
  
  Your cat ought to work a little less.
  
  I know this is a joke, but for real outdoor domesticated cats kill 1.3-4 billion songbirds a year… and most of those cats are being fed by humans.
  They really do need to stop working so hard, and humans really need to start thinking about the ethics of letting their cat out to slaughter the wildlife around their home for no reason.
  
  I keep finding dead things in my yard because of this. There are at least 3 "neighborhood cats" that someone lets run wild. They're definitely fed, groomed and collared, they have somewhere to go at night. Do you know of any techniques to reduce the impact short of just letting them come into my house during the day?
  
  Steal the cats. Indoor cats live longer and don't murder birbs.
  
  that would condemn my rats to a lifetime of constant terror
  
  Maybe not. The bars on our cage are too small for cats to actually get at the rats, and they don't try. The rats are unbothered by cats being around. Obviously we close the bedroom off when it's ratty playtime.

76 comments