Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by M_Grey 3549 days ago
I'm not a hawk or a dove, the world isn't black and white and situations should be examined on their own merits. People fleeing unlivable conditions, who are essentially helpless, and who are fleeing conditions with deep roots in the places they're fleeing to, are a very different set of circumstances. Not to mention that there is simply no need for the extremes of violence, that would just be a ridiculous choice to satisfy xenophobia.

In this case, the helpless and nearly extinct intelligent animals aren't humans, but elephants. For decades, peaceful attempts have been made to preserve them in some way, and all of those attempts are failing. The alternatives are very clearly to take drastic action, or accept the extinction of an intelligent species.

As for whether I'd be willing to kill a human to save an elephant, yes, I would frankly welcome the chance. I despise people who destroy life in the name of ideology, profit, and a general lack of giving a shit. The only difference for me personally is that I'd be much more willing to kill the people truly responsible, rather than the poachers themselves who are often tools of those people.

2 comments

And the folks funding it are tools of the folks merchandising the products (ivory etc). And they are the tools of the folks buying the products. Who are the tools of the fashion industry. Ad infinitum.

In the end, we are all responsible for our own part in the play. Go ahead and shoot poachers - they know what they're doing. Got to break the chain somewhere.

So to be clear, "you would not be willing to sacrifice your own life, to save the elephants", yet you would kill the father, the brother, the son of someone, to save the elephants?
I'm not interesting in committing suicide, but obviously assassinating people isn't likely to yield a long life for the assassin. The other reality is that "sacrificing my own life" while very symbolic, is totally useless, so I have to wonder why you're so focused on that one point to the exclusion of literally everything else.