Sometimes I feel we are being laughed at by the aliens from outer space. Humans are pretty dumb. I'd rather be a duck.

My cats like ducks.

No

Even if there's lots of total scum and stupid people around, i'm not one of them. What I do feel about being human is not so much shame for our race but more a wanting for something better and a certain hatred of the flaws we have (mainly biological ones).

Human brains in particular (yes, all neurotypes) have tons of basic fundamental flaws, but the human brain has no source code to patch, so i've got to wait on all the neurologists reverse engineering it.

Yes.  Deeply.

This thread inspired a three page rant.
I think I got it out of my system for the moment
and I decided to spare you.  

You're welcome.

Many humans disgust and anger me, but just as many make me proud to be human.

i tend to laugh at humans. i think humans are ridiculous in almost every way. and i consider myself just as laughable and ridiculous as, if not more so than, most people.

Just let me 'correct' this statement:

Yes

There's lots of total scum and stupid people around, but though i'm not one of them, I am still incredibly constricted in my ability to think and percieve the world properly. What I do feel about being human is what we are, an incomplete flub of evolution which barely emerged from trial and error without any concept, always unhappy by the wanting for something better and there is so much hatred of the flaws we have (mainly in our intelligence).

Human brains in particular (yes, all neurotypes) have tons of basic fundamental flaws, but the human brain has no source code to patch, no way to intervene or improve, so we have got to hope for all the scientist to come up with a concept that finally supersedes our existence.


I hope you don't mind Gareth, that I stole your text.

Have I ever beeen ashamed to be a human being?

No. I feel no shame for my species, nor do I believe in the concept of "Collective Guilt." Whatever disgraceful thing someone else says or does is not my responsibility, and I will not be held accountable for it.

I don't "believe" it, but I feel it.  When talking to someone from another country, I need to suppress the urge to say "I didn't vote for this."  I am ashamed to be a US citizen.  If I ever meet an extra-terrestrial,
I will definitely want to clarify that I am not with those vile creatures.  (Please take me with you?)

Yes.

I'm German. It happened when I first heard about the Holocaust. Need I say more?

I spent a lot of time trying to figure out why ordinary people would look the other way when faced with the reality of the concentration camps, while other ordinary people risked their lives; and I don't think I've yet completely answered that question.

When speaking with a person from another country, I often find myself agreeing with their assessments of certain actions taken by certain people or corporations. What I do take exception to are sweeping generalizations like, "All Americans are like that" or "Typical Americans" or other such comments that paint us all with the same broad brush.

Prejudice is an awful thing that knows no political, cultural, or philosophical boundaries.

It wasn't like that for me. It was more like, "How do I know I wouldn't look the other way?"

"..the surest sign that intelligent life exists is that it hasn't tried to contact us." I don't remember were that quote is from, but it does make sense.

Calvin and Hobbes. If I remember correctly, it's from a story arc in the anthology Weirdos From Another Planet.

I have a Jewish friend, who used to live in the same street as me.  One time she came to visit me and I was talking about a programme I'd seen the night before about Auschwitz.  She hadn't watched the programme, but we got talking about it.  Her grandparents and a few other family members came to Scotland from Poland in the 1930s.  Those that were left in Poland were all killed by the Nazis.

She and I lived in a short street of terraced houses.  My friend and her non-Jewish partner lived with their children a few houses down from us, and another couple with children, the father is Jewish, stayed a few houses up from us.  My friend said that what would have happened in Poland or Germany at that time would have been that they would have been taken in the middle of the night, and we would have woken up the next day to find that those two houses were empty.

She must have read on my face that I was thinking that we would've helped them or hidden them, because she looked at me and said, "And if you had tried to help us, then they would've taken you too, and that would've been three empty houses".

We can think about what we might have done in that situation, but the reality is that we just don't know.  We all hope that we would have done the right and decent thing, but not having been there, we don't know how our ideals and the reality of the situation would've matched up.

It was a sobering conversation, and one I won't forget as the imagery of those empty houses, of families with small children being taken away to be killed because they were Jewish, was so vivid and became so ...  close ... to me.