Funny

9653 readers

1054 users here now

General rules:

Be kind.
All posts must make an attempt to be funny.
Obey the general sh.itjust.works instance rules.
No politics or political figures. There are plenty of other politics communities to choose from.
Don't post anything grotesque or potentially illegal. Examples include pornography, gore, animal cruelty, inappropriate jokes involving kids, etc.

Exceptions may be made at the discretion of the mods.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

276

Onward to Uranus (i.imgur.com)

submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

12 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 years ago (5 children)

I actually soft hate every version of this meme, even the cute ones (this is cute). The planet is not endangered by human activity. The most endangered being from human activity is humans. We need to think of fixing this less as a favor to the planet spirit and more as a basic survival issue.

Plus the whole "we are the virus" framing smacks of Malthus and just opens the door to "which people are most the virus and who do we get rid of?"

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 years ago

The most endangered from human activity is all life. There is a massive die off happening and will only get larger impacting all plants and animals.

But you're right, the planet will still be here once we're (and everything else) is gone.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago

The most endangered being from human activity is humans.

We're not just making the planet unlivable for us. We managed to get rid of almost half of all the insects in the last 30 years. We made countless species go extinct via various methods. And that's just a few of our "achievements".

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I get what you’re saying, but I think memes like this are trying to do a few things:

frame mankind’s unique ability to think beyond just the interest of self to drive a sense of common purpose (i.e., increase our chance of survival and avoid self destruction).
to that end, evoking the construct of a helpless and fragile planet as the calling to fight for self preservation as a species probably works better since all signs point to our inability to act on behalf of a greater good for mankind.
the imagery and framing of this sort provides subliminal messaging that we collectively and individually have a power to do something about it (humans can create the problem as well as the solution). Honestly, even if it weren’t true, it feels better to think we can affect change rather than not.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

And I soft hate 'the planet will be fine' people.

It's figurative, not to be taken literally. This is not difficult. You're trying too hard.