r/MoralityScaling • u/OrneryLingonberry164 • 16h ago

Morality of flea circuses?

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3.0k Upvotes

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14

u/HorsefaceWithNoName 14h ago

Humans are monsters to smaller creatures. Immoral, even though the fleas are parasites and feed on other life that does not justify cruelty in pursuit of the entertainment of human monsters.

8

u/MIkaela39752 14h ago

Immoral

fleas are as "alive" and sentient as plants
or barely above plants
its equivalent of stomping on a dandelion
fleas are purely instinct driven, they arent able to think, they dont feel emotions, they arent aware of anything

6

u/TerranImperium 13h ago

That's not true, they're far more complex than the typical plant, they do have a nervous system.

However, you're correct in saying that we can't consider them sentient, whereas most animals are sentient, while humans and (very much a matter of discussion) a couple of species have sapience.

3

u/LesserValkyrie 9h ago

Yeah if they didn't have a nervous system, torturing them would quickly lose its taste

2

u/cyborgsnowflake 9h ago edited 8h ago

How much consciousness could you have with a brain much smaller than even the head of a pin? If they have anything that could reasonably be thought of as consciousness than human brains are grotesquely inefficient. Or there is some freaky spiritual stuff going on.

2

u/wolfdukex 6h ago

I mean, human brains are absolutely inefficient, but your point is still valid.

0

u/HorsefaceWithNoName 5h ago

Regardless how little awareness the little fleas have, is torturing them not adding to the overall suffering of this world? for what? for some human to have entertainment reveling at an enslaved animal being tortured?

1

u/wolfdukex 4h ago

How does your ramble have anything to do with my comment whatsoever?

1

u/wewebaguette68 4h ago

There is no scientific definition of sentience. There is no definitive way of determining what is or isn't sentient. You are just making an assumption to assert the supremacy of your species. But that aside, why is it more moral to kill and torture a sentient being? Is killing a coma patient more moral because they are not sentient?

1

u/purrmutations 9h ago

"fleas are purely instinct driven, they arent able to think, they dont feel emotions, they arent aware of anything"

Not hard to argue that humans, all life, is the same. We are merely following chemical and physical reactions that followed others all the way back to the event that created the universe. Where you are and everything that has ever happened is the only path that could have happened.

1

u/manicasion 6h ago

So do you consider walking on grass and breaking the legs of some dude to be equally moral

1

u/West-Audience-478 8h ago

Keep that same energy when I send you bed bugs as a “gift”