Monte wrote:
Why is it when people say things like this in a perfectly rational, calm tone of voice, the first reaction from those that disagree with them is to call them "angry"?
You can be angry with a calm tone of voice. The relentless use of hyperbole, for one. It just comes across as a sort of passive aggressive, very intentional use of words.
This fellow better realize that he, too, is a monkey, and that he's not going to register a blip in the history of monkeys. Nietzsche ranks higher on the rankings of importance, despite being a monkey as well. As T Rex put it so eloquently, Plato may once have said
"I'm hungry guys, frig!", but going all argument ad nauseum with the monkey thing doesn't make Plato any less influential.
If it's just based in pure nihilism that nothing those two or anyone else does matters, because we're all doing to die some day regardless, is pretty pointless an argument and not one I think many people here really support. I'm pretty sure you don't. Whether an individual works to brighten a few others' lives, or gives millions of people throughout history something to discuss and think about, that is influence that anyone outside of a nihilist counts for something.
The only thing I like about his message is that humanity can stand to be brought down a notch. We are the supreme species on this planet by an order of magnitude, but separating things into "humans" vs "everything else" is pretty arrogant. Dogs have emotions, social rules, communication... so when you bring an earthworm into the discussion, it's far more apt to group the dogs in with us than it would be to group them with the earthworm. Maybe you can also pull the point that all those Nietzsches and Platos were just normal humans, too... maybe. But the video is a lot more than these points and there's a bit of anger there. And if I don't give him the benefit of the doubt, it also seems the guy thinks he's some sort of enlightened giver of wisdom, instead of just another of the billions of monkeys.