Who would you save? A baby or a panda

[ZPG_Zealot]

@Loach

I would feel less threatened by someone raised by wolves than by someone raised by you.

Every kid I’ve raised (my youngest brother, a couple of my nephews) has grown up to be a law-abiding, productive member of society.

[Dread_Pirate_Jimbo]

I can’t stand children under the age of, you know, 25. I’m saving the panda, which is adorable and a member of an endangered species.

[VinylTurnip]

@ZPG_Zealot

A sociopath would care less about either the baby or the panda. I would save the panda because it’s an endangered species. The baby isn’t.

Ooh, you’re so edgy I wanna shave my nuts with you.

[lorene]

@ZPG_Zealot

A sociopath would care less about either the baby or the panda. I would save the panda because it’s an endangered species. The baby isn’t.

I think she meant the part about enjoying the thought of the baby drowning, which you said you would. Independent of the panda being an endangered species, you said you would probably enjoy the thought of a baby drowning. That’s the sociopathic part.

[eschereal]

@cmyk

This hypothetical is on Hoth, correct?

If it involved drowning (which was vaguely implied by allusion to the other thread) then probably not. There is no liquid water to speak of on Hoth (though I suppose they might have lakes of alcohol or something).

[Cat_Whisperer]

I assume that the people in this thread who are calling other people things like sociopath for having a different perspective* than they have are parents; one thing that parents seem to have a problem understanding is that your baby is only special to you. The baby in the hypothetical (and everyone else’s babies) will probably grow up to be just another human on a planet full of humans; i.e. not very special.

*I’m talking about the handful of posts here that call other people things like that, not ZPG wanting to see a baby drown. That’s a whole 'nother thing.

[muldoonthief]

No, we parents totally get that, and if your choice was to save my baby, or your elderly mother, I wouldn’t call you a sociopath for picking your mother. But in general, if given the choice to save a human or any other non-human living creature, if you don’t pick the human, you’re a sociopath. Cause there’s nothing special about a panda, or a finger monkey, or a tiger cub, or anything else either.

[pravnik]

You got me. Up until two months ago I would have been all like “totally panda, what’s up with them dumb babies crappin’ themselves anyway?” but now I’ve got a baby I’m all like “OMG f*ck pandas babies are teh bombbb!!”

[Vihaga]

@Cat_Whisperer

I assume that the people in this thread who are calling other people things like sociopath for having a different perspective* than they have are parents; one thing that parents seem to have a problem understanding is that your baby is only special to you. The baby in the hypothetical (and everyone else’s babies) will probably grow up to be just another human on a planet full of humans; i.e. not very special.

*I’m talking about the handful of posts here that call other people things like that, not ZPG wanting to see a baby drown. That’s a whole 'nother thing.

I am a parent now, but I’d have called that “different perspective” fucked up 10 years ago, too. Threads like this are why my husband thinks straight dope is largely populated with antisocial lunatics, internet tough guys, and people who think they’re smart just because no one likes them. The perspective here is sometimes unique to the point of creepiness.

[Rushgeekgirl]

@ZPG_Zealot

Every kid I’ve raised (my youngest brother, a couple of my nephews) has grown up to be a law-abiding, productive member of society.

Well thank goodness there were no struggling pandas around when you were raising those kids!

[Rushgeekgirl]

I personally couldn’t care less about pandas. Yeah they’re cute and endangered but I just don’t care because there’s about a thousand other more pressing issues in my life. There’s plenty cute fuzzy animal babies out there. I don’t donate to “save the animals” funds either, while if I had money I’d donate to any “save the children” fund. I don’t think it has a thing to do with me being a mother either. If I see a baby and a panda drowning, I’d save the baby. I could not let another human being die, regardless of age.

[Rollo_Tomasi]

@Vihaga

Threads like this are why my husband thinks straight dope is largely populated with antisocial lunatics, internet tough guys, and people who think they’re smart just because no one likes them.

I was actually thinking the “save the panda, yay drowning baby” mentality was actually some sort of weird offshoot of Internet Tough Guy, rather than sociopathy.

[Tamerlane]

@Vihaga

people who think they’re smart just because no one likes them.

How else am I supposed to get validation!?!?

The perspective here is sometimes unique to the point of creepiness.

Ah, but it isn’t really. Unique that is. I’d almost guarantee you’d get the same range of responses from a bunch of college students sitting around in a dorm somewhere. The SDMB isn’t that unique at all, its just that any intellectual ( or faux intellectual, depending on your POV ) milieu bring with them a certain level of pretentious and/or clueless wankery among at least a minority of the participants. Plus the occasional deranged wingnut. It just goes with the territory.

[Enderw24]

For those of you voting for “human baby” would your answer change if you were saving this?

And these parents were just standing there holding this sign?

And the baby looked like this?

And you were colorblind and drunk?

[lorene]

@Cat_Whisperer

I assume that the people in this thread who are calling other people things like sociopath for having a different perspective* than they have are parents; one thing that parents seem to have a problem understanding is that your baby is only special to you. The baby in the hypothetical (and everyone else’s babies) will probably grow up to be just another human on a planet full of humans; i.e. not very special.

*I’m talking about the handful of posts here that call other people things like that, not ZPG wanting to see a baby drown. That’s a whole 'nother thing.

Eh, I would save someone else’s baby, too, unspecial as he or she might be. I’m not calling the panda savers sociopaths (that designation is reserved for that one person who would probably enjoy the thought of a human baby drowning), but it strikes me as callous. Those people who are indifferent to the babies and preferring to save the panda because pandas are special and people are a dime a dozen—you realize that that means someone should choose saving a panda over saving you, right? You are also nothing special and not worth more than the poor, endangered panda.

@Vihaga

I am a parent now, but I’d have called that “different perspective” fucked up 10 years ago, too. Threads like this are why my husband thinks straight dope is largely populated with antisocial lunatics, internet tough guys, and people who think they’re smart just because no one likes them. The perspective here is sometimes unique to the point of creepiness.

Your husband makes some valid points. Between this and the thread about choosing homelessness with your pet over a no-pet apartment, even if you have kids, I’m less convinced by the moment that I even want to fit in here.

[Cat_Whisperer]

@Vihaga

I am a parent now, but I’d have called that “different perspective” fucked up 10 years ago, too. Threads like this are why my husband thinks straight dope is largely populated with antisocial lunatics, internet tough guys, and people who think they’re smart just because no one likes them. The perspective here is sometimes unique to the point of creepiness.

At least we usually spell things properly.

[Inner_Stickler]

Yeah, not a parent at all. Saying on a messageboard that you’d save a panda over a human? ITG. Saving a panda over a human? Fucked up. Relishing the idea of a human drowning? Super fucked up.

[cmyk]

But, due to the paradoxes of time travel, a future you, you stole yourself from your own parents and a baby panda from deep in the jungles of China when their species thrived, their numbers in the dozens.

Traveling to the present, knowing you’d be happening by a piano just about to fall on the street, you place your infant self and the panda under its shadow.

Before you can see which life your past self chooses to save, you travel back to your own time to…

Enjoy the rest of your life, still in a world of endangered pandas…

Or,

… poof

[cmyk]

@Inner_Stickler

Yeah, not a parent at all. Saying on a messageboard that you’d save a panda over a human? ITG. Saving a panda over a human? Fucked up. Relishing the idea of a human drowning? Super fucked up.

At least… At least a panda will never call you names, break your heart, or shoot up a school full of kids! sobs

It wouldn’t save you or another panda from imminent danger either.

[Dread_Pirate_Jimbo]

@Skald_the_Rhymer

<snip>Expecting your neighbors to call 911 if they see your house on fire means you have to call 911 if you see their houses on fire. Animals in general cannot participate in this; they lack the intelligence and ability to communicate that belonging to a human-style community requires. (Note that I’m not denying that some animals–dogs, elephants, etc–have communities of their own; obviously some do.) If you live in a community, if you partake of the advantages that society imparts, then you take on an obligation to act as a neighbor. If you see a helpless human creature in jeopardy, then it behooves you to intervene; it behooves you to place higher priority on that human life than on that of an animal.
That’s the rational part of my argument, I’ll add this. There are persons who don’t agree with the above, of course, who feel no obligation to assist their neighbors when they are in jeopardy or need. There’s something the fuck wrong with those people. Maybe it’s genetic and they simply lack the hardwiring; maybe they’ve been traumatized and need help; maybe they’re just assholes. But they’re not right in the head.

If I choose to save a panda and not to save someone’s baby, I accept the fact that they are under no obligation to save my baby in the future and I’m at peace with that.

@ZPG_Zealot

The problem is people who choose to breed irresponsibly have already broken that social contract. They have placed their own desire to reproduce above what the community needs. Therefore, they shouldn’t be surprised when the community kicks them out and lets them suffer the results of their stupidity (like creating conditions that lead to the extinction of animal species and leaving babies unattended).

Word.