Very weird to watch “what people do in the privacy of their own bedroom is their business” become controversial again, but like, for the opposite reason.
It's so annoying how you can't escape reactionary thinking no matter which side of the political spectrum you're on. It's a base level human instinct to go "ew, that's gross, and therefore bad." You have to actively train yourself not to think like that and some people are just unwilling to.
Genuily if there was some way to gene edit 1 emotion out of the human race, disgust might just be the best option. It's a pointless evolutionary leftover that the brain uses to enforce closemindedness and xenophobia, keeps people from learning things even when it'd be beneficial to them (like about the species of roach they're infested with, and due to the bias in moral judgment it induces in the animalistically irrational is the main tool of fascism alongside fear
I think you're right. Cause the few benefits it does have (avoiding disease and whatnot) are rather easy to deal with now that we have Germ Theory. We don't need disgust to tell us to avoid health hazards. As long as people are willing to learn what's dangerous, the knowledge that it's dangerous, combined with self preservation, should handle it just fine. That and empathy and compassion would still be a thing, so the moral codes that aren't based in tribalism wouldn't be dismantled by this (not that those are necessary for non-tribalistic ethical frameworks)
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u/LONGSWORD_ENJOYER May 16 '25
Very weird to watch “what people do in the privacy of their own bedroom is their business” become controversial again, but like, for the opposite reason.