Richard Hanania once wrote that we consider people less rational than us to be brutish and uncivilized while people more rational are weird and autistic. The analogy he gave is the joke about how people driving slower than me are morons and people driving faster than me are maniacs.
I'm usually more rational than others but this is a case where I'm on the other side. The logic behind supporting this charity is impeccable and I believe from this post and others that Matthew Adelstein is smarter and a better person than I am. However, emotionally I can't bring myself to care about shrimp. I mean, I squash insects and spiders all the time if I find them in my house, and shrimp are basically insects of the sea. I don't have a serious argument against this, I'm just a flawed human being shaped by evolution and I naturally care about myself, friends and family, and groups I belong to. I can pull the occasional non-human mammal into that sphere of concern but that's as far as it goes.
Great argument—count me in!
Awesome!
Reductio ad absurdum
Richard Hanania once wrote that we consider people less rational than us to be brutish and uncivilized while people more rational are weird and autistic. The analogy he gave is the joke about how people driving slower than me are morons and people driving faster than me are maniacs.
I'm usually more rational than others but this is a case where I'm on the other side. The logic behind supporting this charity is impeccable and I believe from this post and others that Matthew Adelstein is smarter and a better person than I am. However, emotionally I can't bring myself to care about shrimp. I mean, I squash insects and spiders all the time if I find them in my house, and shrimp are basically insects of the sea. I don't have a serious argument against this, I'm just a flawed human being shaped by evolution and I naturally care about myself, friends and family, and groups I belong to. I can pull the occasional non-human mammal into that sphere of concern but that's as far as it goes.