It's interesting that you equate us to animals, when likely you know more than a few in your daily life. The thing with our humor is its universality. You can hope that only the immature and childish partake, but you should realize that people from all walks of life can derive humor from sadness. Your doctor, your co-workers, your relatives, your friends, etc. Any one of them could enjoy "sick" jokes, and you would be none the wiser if you didn't know them to such an intimate degree. Mr. Smith, the lovable and sociable co-worker could go home each day and make photoshops to deface facebook memorials each night. The family friends you invite over for dinner could have been laughing about a school shooting on the drive over. You'll never know, though, because such jokes don't translate well into the public eye.

I don't equate people to animals, they equate themselves to animals, I just agree that they act closer to that than a human. And even animals can sometimes display more compassion and empathy than so-called "higher" beings such as us.

As for me knowing some in real life and not knowing it, I was addressing the topic, which is people who like to do it openly for reactionary reasons. That's just lame and immature. For those that keep it from public, I would imagine part of that is because it is not acceptable behavior, and partly because they are too embarrassed to let people see them act that way publicly.

For the ones who don't care who sees them or hears them act that way, well, they are the ones I truly am worried about...

Nope. By lacking empathy equates to nothing. It's human behavior just like anything else, like necrophilia, compassion, torture and love.

Humans are animals. Most people see it as insulting, or their views get in the way of the actual facts.

Aye, we're just of greater intelect. Though compared to rest of the animal kingdom, that is questionable.

This right here is what I'm talking about. By equating yourself, and other people to animals, it excuses behavior. You (and so many others) can believe that we are just animals, for whatever reason you see fit, but I choose to believe we are much more than that.

I don't think it excuses a persons behavior at all. All mammals (including humans) look exactly the same as a fetus in the first few weeks, which I find amazing.

We are very intelligent animals. But when humanity thinks that it is better or that it has dominion over other animals, it's ridiculous. Just because humans are animals doesn't give a person the excuse to do horrible things.

But, some folks will equate themselves to animals to justify their actions, that is not justifiable. Even though we are animals.

I've yet to hear of a non-human theoretical physicist, philosopher, or playwright.

When a dolphin can master the intricacies of thrust propulsion and land a trained team of non-humans on the moon, I will give greater merit to non-humans. Until then, it remains that humans are, in terms of individual potential, the most intelligent and mentally developed species currently on the planet. Obviously not everyone will be able to live up to their potential as intellectuals, but that same potential has not been seen in non-humans to the degree we enjoy.

I agree. Sometimes I think humans are too intelligent for their own good.

In what way? The problems associated with our planet are certainly not ideal, but no one said progress would be a perfect thing. Progress in this context being technological advancement as a species to eventually be able to colonize other planets. Lofty, certainly, but it's infinitely better than not advancing and remaining ignorant savages for all time. I guess you could say I'd rather we gamble and try to win, rather than not play.

Technological advancement does not equal a greater sense of ethics and morals. We're close to ass [censored] this planet beyond repair, and the solution is relocation? Like that'll change our current behavior... We already know what to do to improve the conditions of this earth, but we don't do it.

Relocation my ass. We'll just become a planetary-consuming horde of locust.

I agree that advancing in intelligence is better than remaining ignorant savages. As smart as humans are, some are still ignorant savages.

I think humans are so sophisticated that they create conspiracies and have certain mental conditions. I'm not saying that our increase in sapience and intelligence is a bad thing, but that those are the side effects that come with it.

Humans still have basic instincts despite their aptitude.

Ethics and morals are completely subjective and determined by the will of the majority. You can throw around those terms like they hold any objective value, but that doesn't change the fact that if slavery somehow became accepted by 90% of the world population tomorrow, peoples sense of ethics and morals would adjust accordingly.

Your seething misanthropy makes me wonder why you haven't killed yourself yet. You might see yourself as a cut above "those other, awful, greedy humans" and instead stand as a symbol of goodness and morality. That would be egotistical and awfully self-righteous. Unless you contend that you're just like the rest of us; in that case I refer to my original offer.

I am a speciesist. That much should be obvious by now. You and I could have nothing in common other than our human genome, but that alone sets us apart from every other species in this universe, and that kinship means more to me than political boundaries and morality, which is why I refer to myself as a human, above all else. For all our mistakes and imperfections, we are still capable of achieving impossible things as a species.

This probably won't have as much an effect on you as it does me, but the http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY59wZdCDo0 remains a major source of inspiration that humans can do anything they set their minds to, both good and bad.

I have a morbid sense of humor or so I am told.

Humans are unique indeed. I do believe that humans can do anything they put their minds to. Humans actually smoke the leaves of plants that are meant as a defense mechanism for a euphoria. We've been on the moon (some think it's a hoax, but I don't).

For instance the pyramids in Egypt. Some people think extra-terrestrials help build them, but thats thinking humanity isn't capable of such a feat. The Egyptians were very advanced.

It really is amazing.

My misanthropy is based on the mindless humanity where the individual is of no concern and statistics is all that matter. In those regards, I feel humanity is a cancer. A parasite who's existence relies on the host's existence, which the parasite is a severe harm to.

But I agree to some degree that as living beings, our capacity to create is tremendous and that is amazing. Regardless of what the creations may be. As for ethics and morals, I agree that they are subjective. I simply used them as they are often associated with being of a kind, respectable demeanor. Which is not what humanity, to me anyway, is even close to. To rephrase a part of my previous post then, technological advancement does not equal increased awareness of the damage we may and often cause on our enviroment, which again supports our way of living.

When i was younger i made suicide jokes and my friends know i was joking, but outsiders thought it was a warning sign, which cracked me up