This thread is inspired by an earlier one I made about attitudes and behavior towards less powerful or less significant beings.
Firstly, I’m the kind of guy who steps on bugs, not around them. If there’s a bug in my house; I don’t “rescue it.” I squash it, then flush it. So, that’s my very non-objective starting off point on the subject, and I just want to be upfront about that.
With that said, on to the meat and potatoes:
Over the course of time I have noticed a small yet significant number of people who immediately dislike it when I step on bugs, with varying degrees of expression and distaste. Some examples: I’m at a restaurant and a creepy looking spider is crawling on the floor near my seat, so I quietly slide my foot over and crunch it. Then someone at the table goes: “Hey, it didn’t do anything to you!” Or, a bee lands on my glass so I sneak my hand up from the side to give it a flick (which I’m pretty good at btw) and then hear “that was mean” right after I’ve stomped it. Even one good buddy of mine has been inclined to say something along the lines of “Come on dude… leave them alone,” in a half joking way, if I stop to bulldoze an ant mound with the toe of my sneaker when we’re playing on the tennis court.
To be fair, this sort of reaction is more the exception than the rule. The usual reaction is indifference or not acknowledging the act at all. However, I do seek to understand why some people make even a minor fuss. For that reason, I invite everyone to state their thoughts on the matter. Is this an issue that you even think about? Do you tend to dislike people who step on bugs, or in particular, a guy like me who steps on them often purposely and for no reason at all? If so, why? If you are one of those people, I would especially love to hear from you.
I do.I don’t have a lot of respect for someone who goes around killing things without thought. I think it’s very telling that you expect other people to justify our reaction to your repugnant behavior.
If I find a spider or beetle in my house, I generally put it outside. In fact, a moth flew in my house earlier this evening and landed next to me. I carefully picked it up with a tissue and took it outside.
Anything else is just mindless cruelty, IMHO. That moth wasn’t hurting me—why should I kill it for no reason?
(I do draw the line with flies, termites, ants, etc. in the house.)
So to answer the question in the OP: I would not think highly of someone who kills any living being “for no reason at all.”
Sure thing. To be more honest, killing bugs for no reason is the kind of thing a child does and he does it because he doesn’t have a lot of power in his life. If you’re an adult who needs to kill bugs to feel powerful, you’re probably living a pretty inconsequential life.
Hmm, maybe I misexpressed myself. I don’t kill bugs to feel powerful, nor do I go around on some maniacal search for them. In fact I hate when they’re in the house or buzzing around my lunch. I mainly kill bugs who are bothersome to my immediate presence. If there is one in my path, then yeah, sometimes I’ll stamp it just because… but I guess I don’t see it as much different than kicking a rock. At the end of the day, they’re bugs.
Spiders are our friends and are treated with kindness. They are also not bugs.
Wasps are flying assholes and mosquitoes are out to get me. If they are outside and not actively bothering me, I don’t bother them. If they are inside, or bothering me, they will be killed.
Dragonflies will be oohed and aahed over.
So it depends on the bug (or in the case of the spider, the non-bug).
I like insects in general although I don’t want carpenter ants or termites in the house. But spiders - whole nother story. They terrify me and I detest them. Every single damn one of them, I don’t care how small. If see one close I instantly squash it. My reflex action is so fast I couldn’t stop if I wanted to. If I spot one further away I use whatever means is best - spray, broom, two by four, whatever. I keep cans of wasp spray all over the place as they have long range and good accuracy. I have them on the front porch, the rear deck, the laundry room, in the garage and the golf cart. I periodically spray the garage perimeter with long lasting death-on-contact stuff.
The back of the house and the front of the garage are where the wolf spiders live. Holy Shit! I did not see any this summer due to my constant removal of anything laying on the ground they can live under. But now I killed 25 or 30 somewhat smaller versions about the size of a half dollar. I guess the wolves used to keep them in check.
Way back in the early days of the internet, I used to see a lot of posts that were basically along the lines of “What do you do when you see a bug? I stomp on it.” Posts very similar to this seemed a little too common to me, which I thought was a bit odd. It was much later that I found out that there is such a thing as a stomping fetish (rule 34, I guess) and that posts like these were basically how those with stomping fetishes identified themselves to others with the same fetish.
I don’t know if I would characterize my reaction to someone who says they really like to step on bugs as a “dislike”, but if someone tells me that they really like to step on bugs, my first thought is to wonder if this person has this particular sexual fetish, and at that point I really don’t want to be involved in the conversation any more.
If it’s not some sort of sexual fetish, then I have to worry if it’s some form of animal cruelty. Again, I don’t know if I would characterize it as “dislike”. It’s more of a concern for the person’s mental health than dislike.
In either case, it’s not a “like” or “acceptance”.
Not my area of expertise, but I will note that wikipedia has an article on “crush fetish” that has numerous cites within the article.
If it’s a hoax, it’s a very long-running hoax. Google ngram has the first appearance of “crush fetish” in 1994 with a small peak in 2002 and a much larger peak in 2011. It was on the decline between 2011 and 2017 but has been rising since then.
I am definitely not an expert in fetishes though, so make of that what you will.
Exactly. Only I also try to get the mosquitoes that cme close outdoors. Mosquitoes are evil and out to get me. The other bugs, spiders and scorpions are awesome. To those who don’t believe me: get a microscope.
