←back to thread

The shrimp welfare project

(benthams.substack.com)
81 points 0xDEAFBEAD | 6 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source | bottom
Show context
thinkingtoilet ◴[] No.42172998[source]
I love articles like this that challenge the status quo of morality. I find my self asking the question, "Would I rather save a billion shrimp or one human?" and I honestly think I'm siding on the human. I'm not saying that answer is "correct". It's always good to think about these things and the point the author makes about shrimp being a test of our morality because they're so different is a good one.
replies(6): >>42173031 #>>42173080 #>>42173385 #>>42175436 #>>42175641 #>>42180356 #
himinlomax ◴[] No.42173080[source]
The best way to save even more shrimps would be to campaign for and subsidize whaling. They are shrimp-mass-murdering machines. What's a few whales versus billions of shrimps?
replies(3): >>42173120 #>>42175538 #>>42175779 #
1. xipho ◴[] No.42173120[source]
You didn't read the article nor follow the argument, just jumped in. It's about suffering shrimps, not saving shrimps.
replies(2): >>42173234 #>>42176931 #
2. some_random ◴[] No.42173234[source]
Do shrimp not suffer from being consumed by whales?
replies(1): >>42173265 #
3. eightysixfour ◴[] No.42173265[source]
In comparison to having their eyeballs crushed but left alive, or slowly frozen to death?
replies(1): >>42173862 #
4. some_random ◴[] No.42173862{3}[source]
The trade off here is eliminating mutilation, going from Pain + Death to just Death, or in the case of the whales, going from Death to normal, beautiful shrimp Life. I don't really have any interest in doing shrimp quality of life math this morning but there's clearly something there.
5. himinlomax ◴[] No.42176931[source]
I did. It was a whole lot of nothing.

In any case, I just wanted to point out that if you cared about the welfare of damn arthropods, you're going nowhere really fast.

Consider this: the quickest, surest, most efficient way and ONLY way to reduce all suffering on earth to nothing forever and ever is a good ole nuclear holocaust.

replies(1): >>42178856 #
6. xipho ◴[] No.42178856[source]
I said nothing about caring about arthropods. Side note, I do though, they are immensely important to our well being, without them we're not around, with them, we have trillions of dollars of mess to deal with. Again note that I said nothing about their feelings.

I feel you're still missing the point. I get you might be coming from a binary perspective, as evidenced by going to a nuclear argument, i.e. why bother talking about anything else, but I highly doubt that's the goal of the author. They are trying to make you imagine, and think, about how things fit together. YRMV.