I would wipe out five million complete strangers to save the life of a close friend. I would eradicate 5 billion people from the earth to make life mildly more convenient for a family member. If my child’s life was in danger and absolutely nothing could be done to save them, I would press a button that wiped out the entire human race out of spite. I would do these things even if there wasn’t a button, even if I had to do it manually by hand in some sort of weird time freeze hyperbolic chamber of executions. An eternity of pleading strangulations for the marginal benefit of my inner circle tribe. Other people are worth less than my people. Certain living creatures are worth less than other living creatures. There is a dollar value which can be assigned to life. There is a dollar value which can be assigned to human life. This is not callousness, it is mathematical and measurable fact. It is calculations and formulas done by the military, corporations, and bureaucratic offices every single day. People who reject this reality ironically make the world a crueler place. People who embrace this reality are the ones that built the framework of why you live a comfortable and peaceful life. Never ever let someone “charitable” or “altruistic” or “selfless” try to tell you anything about how the world works. Selfishness done without zeal or neurocomplex is the most selfless act because it induces equilibrium in the ecosystem. The eagle does not consider the trout when eviscerating it with its talons. The snake does not hesitate when swallowing the eagles eggs from its nest. The bear eats through the stomach first despite the deer’s screams. The deer cannot fathom what multitudes of creatures die because of overgrazing done by its kind. The considerationalist is a menace because God hates you when you try to do His job for Him. Human beings were not meant to process reality outside of a 50 mile radius. Other people do not exist, and if they seem to, it’s to act as background characters for your personal benefit.

@scottphuston @s8mb Not in a detailed way, and it is a fairly mild “skepticism.” For example, I am not moved by fairly casual reading of many years of arguments that suggest e.g. my children will not see their teenage years due to rapid takeoff. I put that risk near global nuclear annihilation.