Kitten kills game, guy kills kitten.

[Sylvrdragon]

congrats, you have at least one of the 3 tells of being a sociopath. Did you wet your bed a lot growing up?

Actually, yes. Where are you getting this list?

[Sylvrdragon]

Incidentally, one could contend that human beings without proper empathetic abilities are a threat to the human species, and thus should be eliminated when found.

That depends on what you mean by "proper empathetic abilities".

I watch a lot of anime, movies, shows, and read a good number of books. I tense up during action scenes, laugh at the better written jokes, and even get a bit teary when a character I related to dies. Do I incorporate these scenes into my worldview? No.

I make my decisions based on all of the factual and/or logical information that I have on hand. If something doesn't affect me (like the life of a small animal that poses no threat or benefit to me), then I don't let it affect my decisions or judgement.

[Kuya]

Sorry, can't risk you being a threat to the species. You understand, don't you?

[Sylvrdragon]

Sorry, can't risk you being a threat to the species. You understand, don't you?

[Demosthenes11]

Actually, yes. Where are you getting this list?

lol I hope you don't like fire as well
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacDonald_triad

[Linliel]

congrats, you have at least one of the 3 tells of being a sociopath. Did you wet your bed a lot growing up?

yeah... exactly what I was thinking :/

[Shiroikage]

watching a lot of anime seems to be correlated with being stone cold retarded

[Demosthenes11]

watching a lot of anime seems to be correlated with being stone cold retarded

Gonna be radiation sickness for years from that truth bomb wow

[Khamsin]

I already said that being alive is a meaningless characteristic in determining something's value. Logically, it follows that the ability to feel pain is at least equally meaningless.

Why is being alive meaningless? If you want to get down to it, living things are irreplaceable (with the same learned traits, behaviors, genes, connection with loved ones, etc.) and so the decision to end something's life must be weighted more heavily against the benefits and drawbacks. We kill animals for resources and food, even luxury resources and surplus food, and so of course we value them less than other humans and pets with whom we've established a strong connection (and serve no resourceful purpose). Afterall, we don't tend to bother bonding with or teaching livestock.

And so whenever an animal is justifiably killed, there's at least some useful purpose behind it and it is done without undue torture or pain. That's why it's a scandal when a meat processing plant is found to be treating animals inhumanely, even though we're killing them anyways.

To torture an animal, or kill it for no purpose, is unnatural because there is no reason to. Even if the value you place on life is small, it is still value. I doubt you randomly pick up an object and smash it. A life is much more unique because even if you just get another kitten, it's not the same one and will have significant differences, not to mention the bond the previous kitten had with it's owner as well as the effort put into training and other things. You can't replace that.

In short, if you were to just go around destroying property, people would already think you're messed up. To do so with living things will just make people think you're even more messed up, because of the higher inherent value and because of the unnecessary pain you know it inflicts.

[Titanss]

..man I just freaking pm'd you

[Khamsin]

..man I just freaking pm'd you

I'm getting trolled, aren't I?

[Titanss]

..lol

[Sylvrdragon]

The reason I don't assign any objective value to life is that I view it as a natural, causal effect of entropy. As the universe expands, matter and energy are always trying to find a more stable way to exist. At some point, a bit of matter fell into a combination of materials that just happened to have the ability to replicate. From there, natural selection took over and the survivors of each "generation" were a little bit more stable than the one before. That we eventually developed what we call "consciousness" does not make us inherently special, and it doesn't make other living things special either.

I simply choose not to lie to myself in seeing that this value we assign to "living" things is completely subjective. I make a sharp distinction in my mind between man-made values and objective reality. I just happen to believe that the Law should deal in objectivity as much as possible, and I don't see any reason for this particular subject to be outside of that realm.

I can't undo this connection that I've made in my brain. If that makes me a sociopath, then so be it. Although I don't think I am. I don't manipulate people to my own ends, and I'm actually a very (overly, sometimes) nice and honest guy. I don't believe that the conclusions that I've come to are the result of some imbalance in my brain, but rather of a logical line of reasoning that many people never think to follow.

[Max™]

If you're claiming a purely deterministic viewpoint, then you must not believe in free will.

If you don't believe in free will, you can not have chosen to type those words, so why are we even talking to you, an admitted zombie?

Kill it with fire.

[zoobernut]

It is a normal condition of being human to be empathic to the pain of other living creatures. Lacking that empathy or not seeing any value in life is a sign of all sorts of different mental disorders.

Most of them are much worse than sociopath. There is a reason why torturing and killing animals is one of the first signs of a serial killer. It isn't just some silly random thing that someone thought up.

Normal people no matter how logical they think and how objective they are can't simply turn off that part of their brain and shouldn't. Like others have said someone who is not empathic in any way and doesn't see value in life should take their own since it really doesn't have value to society.

In the end though if you really truly don't see value to life then yes it is probably the result of some trauma as a child or some imbalance in your brain.

[Day]

blah blah shut the fuck up

[zoobernut]

blah blah shut the fuck up

Why did you come back Day? I thought you were off comparing your dick to others or something like that.

[Day]

Eh go hug a tree and talk about your feelings

[zoobernut]

Your trolling really sucks Day at least you could be controversial with it or funny or something.

[Day]

How does insulting you directly have anything to do with trolling?