Iceland issues license for 128 fin whales to be hunted this year

schizoidman@lemmy.ml to World News@lemmy.world – 92 points –
Iceland issues license for 128 fin whales to be hunted this year
apnews.com
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Can someone explain why people care more about this than the killing of other animals?

People can care about multiple things.

Yet most don't. Good on you if you do though.

That's...that's just a lie. Why are you telling such an obvious lie? What do you gain? What does anyone at all gain from you being so obviously wrong?

Didn't mean to lie. I thought it followed from context (I see now it didn't) that I mean that most people do not care about the killing of different animals as much.

Outside of like farm animals, I think it's unlikely that most people are just okay with all but one animal being killed. I know I'm not okay with it, and I'm hardly special. I also know I'm not remotely in the position to do anything meaningful about it, and I suspect that is the case for most people. Perhaps you're confusing inaction with apathy.

Because cows as a genus aren't in danger of being wiped out.

Not talking about the artificially created species, that's a separate issue. More things like overfishing. And hunting of other species that are endangered but not as cute and lovable.

Overfishing is far less likely to wipe out an entire genus and what endangered other species are you talking about?

All cetateans are being wiped out. Not just one species of whale.

Overfishing is horrific, but people get up-in-arms about whales because cetaceans are basically people. Think of the dumbest human you know: they’re about as smart as a typical whale.

Octopuses are much smarter and people eat those too.

Edit: can I just correct myself. I now think we shouldn't use perceived intelligence as a measure of how much ethical consideration someone or something deserves, that gets reeeeally gross really fast

Well, maybe they shouldn’t.

No, go ahead and eat the octopuses. It's us squid you guys should be worried about.

Yet there's no posts in my news feed about how they're being fished, let alone comments from people upset about it. Maybe we should care more about all animals?

Octopuses are not much smarter than whales. What are you talking about?

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Yes, it's actually quite simple to answer your simple question because there are so many simple reasons that are simple to understand.

  1. People also care more about eating dogs than other animals. Similar thing here with whales acting more human-like than animals we eat.

  2. Every species of whale is at risk of becoming endangered or extinct. Nearly every other animal that humans are OK with killing aren't in this much danger. Nearly every animal that is endangered gets people to care more about killing them than other animals.

  3. Whales are giant, peaceful creatures (outside of some orcas that are just dicks). People like large animals, like tigers and bears and elephants, but this is a large thing that is also harmless.

  4. Whales are intelligent and show signs of culture, society, memory, and strong feelings.

outside of some orcas that are just dicks

That's part of their charm!

Man Id like to say some things in response of youd have acted like you're open for a normal adult discussion, but I just can't deal with this level of condescension. Please be nicer to people who did nothing to hurt you

I responded that way because you were "just asking questions." It was a gotcha question that you either already knew the answer to (which is why I answered the way I did, because how could a person not know those answers?), or wouldn't believe the answer to even if it was explained simply and rationally.

I was trying to open a discussion and maybe get a person or two to get to question some things. Don't think that's a good reason to be mean. And fwiw I still don't understand WHY a person cares more about a dog than a pig.

I have decided this issue is not important and warrants no consideration, because there are other issues in the world.

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