Image Transcription
(A 4Chan “green-text”, titled “Altruism”, with a close-up photograph of a turtle on the pavement)
Riding bike through town
See something strange on the side of the road
Decide to stop and investigate
It’s a turtle tucked into its shell
Hold finger in front of shell
Turtle pokes its head out, sniffs finger, and then retreats back into it’s shell
It’s a hot day, and there are no bodies of water nearby
There’s a river a few miles away, decide to take the turtle there
Ride bike with one hand while holding the turtle
People look at me strangely
Don’t care, the turtle is all that matters
Turtle pokes its head out when going fast downhill
Probably the fastest the turtle has ever gone
Finally reach the river
Set the turtle on the shore under some shade
After about 10 seconds the turtle crawls into the water
Looks back at me before submerging and swimming away
Feel more emotion in that moment than I have in the last few years
Despite my mistakes and shortcomings, a creature’s life was made better by my existence
Is using our time to help others the real answer?
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I thought this was going to end like the time someone threw the tortoise into a lake
Me too!
Link?
oh no
Short answer: yes.
We’re social creatures and our lizard brain has been programmed by natural selection to help others and be good stewards to our environment. Those feelings come from a dopamine rush as a biological reward for practicing behaviours that have lead to survival and prosperity.
The triune brain is an obsolete theory.
Natural selection also selected self-preservation, fear of the unknown and a plethora of other biases that lead to all kinds of anti-social behavior, there’s not much foundation for ethics to be found in natural selection.Damn science harshing my wholesome vibes.
Seriously though, that’s an interesting point I’ll have to look into that.
If anything, it’s more wholesome for ethics to not merely be tied to natural selection.
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It’s not too likely that any one of us will change the world, but every one of us can change someone’s world. Even if that someone is a turtle.
Alternatively:
Everyone will change the world whether they like it or not. It’s usually in small ways and it’s not always good, but you will have an impact and you are important.
Everything you do makes a difference, even if it’s unclear how.
You’re in a desert, walking along when you look down and see a tortoise. It’s crawling toward you. You reach down and flip it over on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over. But it can’t. Not with out your help. But you’re not helping. Why is that?
That turtle fucked my wife
Xyzzy
I enjoy alien abduction stories too.
It makes me happy to think that for all my fuckups, I may have still helped improve somebodys life in some small way.
I have no illusions about me being a “good” person, but I never leave any creature in need to suffer if I can help it, and that includes everything, even insects. This has resulted in us adopting quite a few “rescue” animals and to be honest, the love and loyalty you get from them is on a completely other level still. They KNOW.
Not to be that person, but you should not move turtles, it will literally kill them. They live in the same 1-2 mile radius all their life.
Im sure it absolutely can, but why would it be a problem if theyre in the same biome. Also this is a kid on a bike, they probably didnt travel a mile
It says in the post it was a few miles away.
Fair point. I still am curious about the biome part of the quesrion
The get lost and then they cry. Ultimately they end up dying due to dehydration. Tragic.
Probably the fastest the turtle has ever gone
Don’t let em fool you, turtles are secretly fast as hell
Yeah, a lot of reptiles are excellent sprinters and whatever the snake equivalent is called.
Like dwarves. Very dangerous over short distances!
I once freed a dragonfly from a spiderweb and felt this way.
Same, but for a bee. My bee bro stopped by to say hello every day for like a week.
Well in this case you directly robbed someone else of their lunch so it’s more ambivalent
There’s some good eatin’ on one of them things
