Venting I hate that we are animals

[Dresired]

These are my personal reasons that i, a 19 years old that has dropped high school at 17 due to severe social phobia and depression, have concluded
I also would like to clarify that my English is not that good and that I'm just chronically online and have no degree on anything at all



I believe human species is inherently doomed, due to our species not being... Compatible with intelligence
I'm not a bio essentialist in most things, such as sex (the "men smart women weak hehe " type), but there are two things that i belive that will never allow us to be better: Tribalism and beauty bias
Tribalism, the fear/rejection of things that do not look like us, makes sense to animals and it's a good tool of surviving... But it doesn't do well with intelligent being, as a instinct, it's not rational, it identifies visual parterns, not anything else, and it ends up making us biased, it makes us evil. It's what creates racism, and will always perpetuate it... Yes, i used to think racism wasn't biological, but it fucking is...

Another thing is beauty bias, that just like tribalism, helps us survive in the wilderness, it's the instinct to distinguish a healthy partner, food, agreesive animal... But it doesn't translate into rationality, we'll ALWAYS be in favor of the people we think are pretty, and always have that little itch in the back of our mind that makes us less favourable to people we think are ugly, and it will always favor people that just happen to won the genetic lottery, no matter what, and there's nothing we can do against it, even i, being self conscious of mine, end up catching myself being biased... Now i, someone paranoid about it, is like that, just imagine the rest of the world that just don't give a shit, or actively wants to hold this as a ideal...

Society will always be unfair, I've been optimistic about the possibility of a society that preach self counsciness of these instincts, but i recently realized that just impossible, and that's why, as someone ugly as fuck, refuse to live in a world like that, destined to be an unfair place to people that just happen to be born "wrongly" (race, appearance, etc)

At the end of the day, we're fucking animals, and we evolved to survive as such, not as conscious beings

Sorry that's cringe shit, but it's what it's

 

[DivineSpark]

I believe human beings has two natures. Animal self (survival instinct, procreation instinct, territorial instinct) divine self (faith, belief, soul)

 

[patheticparasite]

Hey, it seems you lasted one year longer than I did, who dropped out for the same reasons. I applaud your perseverance.

As for the rest, I agree, nature is basically "consume or be consumed", cells that turn stuff into other stuff. Consciousness isn't necessary for that. Yet here we are, a cruel product of evolution.

I believe this line of thought ultimately leads to social Darwinism, an ideology which I relentlessly apply to myself and which makes me want to ctb. At least my moral and political views prevent me from applying it to others. I wish I could be kinder to myself.

 

[Dresired]

Hey, it seems you lasted one year longer than I did, who dropped out for the same reasons. I applaud your perseverance.

Thanks, i think i didn't dropped earlier because of pandemic, i wish we could've a better adolescence...

At least my moral and political views prevent me from applying it to others. I wish I could be kinder to myself.

Same, honestly, kudos to you, our morals are something we should be proud of, but it doesn't have lasting effects in this world, unfortunately...

I believe human beings has two natures. Animal self (survival instinct, procreation instinct, territorial instinct) divine self (faith, belief, soul)

Same, and I believe the animal self is always going to win...

 

[EvisceratedJester]

Yes, i used to think racism wasn't biological, but it fucking is...

Race is a social construct that didn't come about until around the Atlantic slave trade. Racism is a social construct, not a biological one.

At the end of the day, we're fucking animals, and we evolved to survive as such, not as conscious beings

What does that even mean? We did evolve to be conscious beings. Hence why we are conscious because it aided in our ancestors' survival.

Also, what do you mean by "our species isn't compatible with our intelligence"? That doesn't make any sense.

Honestly, I have to admit that I find your post to be a huge simplification of complex topics. While in a political context, tribalism is used when talking about discriminatory attitudes towards out-groups, it's important to note that in-groups and out-groups are arbitrary, and who is a part of our in-group changes pretty easily based on something as simple as walking into a room and associating those wearing the same coloured shirt as you as being part of your in your in-group. However, you don't discriminate against people not wearing the same coloured shirt as you, calling them slurs and mistreating them, do you? You probably don't do that when it comes to other things, such as eye colour, shoe size, whether not those around you have moles or not, etc.

The thing is, while people tend to recall more positive behaviours associated with their in-group, they tend to equally recall negative behaviours associated with their in-group and the out-group. In-group favouritism is generally fuelled by love for the in-group rather than hatred for the out-group. In the case of something, such as racism, we don't necessarily see this. Racism is generally fuelled, in part, by hatred towards the out-group rather than purely due to love towards the in-group.

Along with that, fear and biases towards out-groups can actually change. For example, a study found that when viewing the faces of in-groups and out-groups passively, there was no difference in fear response from participants. When viewing the faces while paired with a shocked, they did find an increase in fear response when participants were viewing the out-group faces, but this difference in response went away during the extinction phase. Another example, which also ties into how arbitrary in-groups and out-groups are, involves a group of black and white participants. They used the IAT to find that there was a clear bias against the black participants. Then they grouped the participants into two teams and had them part take in activities. Afterward, they had them do the IAT again and when participants came across black faces that they perceived as belonging to the same in-group as them they displayed no negativity bias.

On a larger scale, we can also see this in what is going on currently in Canada. Canada is a pretty divided country overall but once Trump started to threaten our country's sovereignty a lot of people in the country came together to unite as one, this being to the point where even the many from Quebec have started latching on more to the Canadian identity.

This is to say that a lot of this is actually complex. A lot of the discrimination that happens today cannot be simplified down to just being an ingrained aspect of our biology. While there are certain biases that we may have as a result of how our brains process the world around us, this isn't enough to completely explain the shit we see today. The divide that we see today in some part stems from our environment and the ways in which the modern-day system has chosen to divide us in order to retain its power over the people.

Race didn't come about organically, but was rather created by colonial leaders as a means to divide poor white people and the black slaves who were working together at the time to fight against them. While beauty bias exists, the degree to which it exists today may not be an accurate reflection of the degree to which it would have existed in the past, especially among our hunter-gatherer ancestors. It could be argued that beauty bias has likely been influenced by modern-day media, especially social media, along with, in the case of women, patriarchal values that have been used to further create a divide between the conventionally attractive and those who are not conventionally attractive.

At the end of the day, the unfair structure of our society cannot be purely blamed on biology. Past hunter-gatherer societies were believed to be, at least based on what I know, more egalitarian compared to the societies of today. We shouldn't let simplistic bio-essentialist horseshit blind us from the complex reality of our situation. This type of thinking that you are displaying is the type of thinking that those in power promote for a reason. It helps them keep people from questioning shit and working against it.

Biases can be unlearned, even unconscious ones. In-groups and out-groups don't necessarily lead to the types of hatred we see today. Some of the divides that we see today didn't exist or did not exist to the same degree or in the same way that they do today. Our society today can be argued to be more hierarchical and divided compared to those before the Neolithic period (at least based on what I know, I am not an anthropologist). In reality, there is a lot of clear environmental influence at play here that should be undermined.

I believe human beings has two natures. Animal self (survival instinct, procreation instinct, territorial instinct) divine self (faith, belief, soul)

There is no "animal self vs divine self". Humans are animals. It's not just an aspect of ourselves, rather it encompasses who are in our entirety. That is the taxonomic kingdom we belong to. Being an animal is more complex than just being territorial and having survival instincts. Just like with humans, many other animal species are capable of varying degrees of problem-solving, perform acts of true altruism, and even develop superstitions as a result of things, like adventitious reinforcement. Human nature is just animal nature, but as with all animal species, there are going to be slight variations as a result of differences stemming from our evolutionary histories.

 

[divinemistress36]

I hate that my lizard brain takes over logical thinking

 

[Haematemesis]

i hate that we are. "are" in the sense of being

 

[Dresired]

What does that even mean? We did evolve to be conscious beings. Hence why we are conscious because it aided in our ancestors' survival.

Also, what do you mean by "our species isn't compatible with our intelligence"? That doesn't make any sense.

Not every trait that manages to survive is good for a species

Honestly, I have to admit that I find your post to be a huge simplification of complex topics. While in a political context, tribalism is used when talking about discriminatory attitudes towards out-groups, it's important to note that in-groups and out-groups are arbitrary, and who is a part of our in-group changes pretty easily based on something as simple as walking into a room and associating those wearing the same coloured shirt as you as being part of your in your in-group. However, you don't discriminate against people not wearing the same coloured shirt as you, calling them slurs and mistreating them, do you? You probably don't do that when it comes to other things, such as eye colour, shoe size, whether not those around you have moles or not, etc.

The thing is, while people tend to recall more positive behaviours associated with their in-group, they tend to equally recall negative behaviours associated with their in-group and the out-group. In-group favouritism is generally fuelled by love for the in-group rather than hatred for the out-group. In the case of something, such as racism, we don't necessarily see this. Racism is generally fuelled, in part, by hatred towards the out-group rather than purely due to love towards the in-group.

Along with that, fear and biases towards out-groups can actually change. For example, a study found that when viewing the faces of in-groups and out-groups passively, there was no difference in fear response from participants. When viewing the faces while paired with a shocked, they did find an increase in fear response when participants were viewing the out-group faces, but this difference in response went away during the extinction phase. Another example, which also ties into how arbitrary in-groups and out-groups are, involves a group of black and white participants. They used the IAT to find that there was a clear bias against the black participants. Then they grouped the participants into two teams and had them part take in activities. Afterward, they had them do the IAT again and when participants came across black faces that they perceived as belonging to the same in-group as them they displayed no negativity bias.

On a larger scale, we can also see this in what is going on currently in Canada. Canada is a pretty divided country overall but once Trump started to threaten our country's sovereignty a lot of people in the country came together to unite as one, this being to the point where even the many from Quebec have started latching on more to the Canadian identity.

That would be a constant fight against bigotry, people are always going to find reasons to make broad generalizations, because it's part of our biology and helped us survive, but that's what happened when human civilization was built being influenced by them

This is to say that a lot of this is actually complex. A lot of the discrimination that happens today cannot be simplified down to just being an ingrained aspect of our biology. While there are certain biases that we may have as a result of how our brains process the world around us, this isn't enough to completely explain the shit we see today. The divide that we see today in some part stems from our environment and the ways in which the modern-day system has chosen to divide us in order to retain its power over the people.

Race didn't come about organically, but was rather created by colonial leaders as a means to divide poor white people and the black slaves who were working together at the time to fight against them.

I'm aware...

While beauty bias exists, the degree to which it exists today may not be an accurate reflection of the degree to which it would have existed in the past, especially among our hunter-gatherer ancestors. It could be argued that beauty bias has likely been influenced by modern-day media, especially social media, along with, in the case of women, patriarchal values that have been used to further create a divide between the conventionally attractive and those who are not conventionally attractive.

I agree with that, it's much worse in modern days, but it always have been strong, people have always cared about appearance as a important factor to define someone's worthy, whatever it was relevant or not, the feeling itself is biological, and again, it helped us survive as animals, but...

At the end of the day, the unfair structure of our society cannot be purely blamed on biology. Past hunter-gatherer societies were believed to be, at least based on what I know, more egalitarian compared to the societies of today. We shouldn't let simplistic bio-essentialist horseshit blind us from the complex reality of our situation. This type of thinking that you are displaying is the type of thinking that those in power promote for a reason. It helps them keep people from questioning shit and working against it.

Biases can be unlearned, even unconscious ones. In-groups and out-groups don't necessarily lead to the types of hatred we see today. Some of the divides that we see today didn't exist or did not exist to the same degree or in the same way that they do today. Our society today can be argued to be more hierarchical and divided compared to those before the Neolithic period (at least based on what I know, I am not an anthropologist). In reality, there is a lot of clear environmental influence at play here that should be undermined.

I personally believe that our far antecessors didn't cared about it too much for the simple reason that they didn't had the luxury to, but once the life quality raised enough, people were able to be petty, a good example of this is the trial of Phryne, from ancient Greece.

And i'm aware of how the powerful maintain the status quo, but powerful people through all history using the exact same tactics- or better- having the same motivation to stay in power is also a biological thing (at least that's the only explanation that makes sense). Whatever government or bourgeoise, people with power are always attracted to corruption, it's a constant... Don't get me wrong, i definitely think all these issues should be fought and have awareness spread, but it's just going to be a constant fight, we can't beat the instinct of power, greed, tribalism, beauty, all others that make us animals... I'm quite the doomer on that topic, but I'm always going to support these causes while I'm still alive (hopefully not long).
Sorry, i took some days to answer, i ended up procrastinating, I'd like to thank your time and attention in writing this answer, i wasn't aware of that study you mentioned, made me a bit more hopeful, but not enough...

i hate that we are. "are" in the sense of being

I actually want to exist, but if it's in this world, I'd rather not