/r/natureisterrible

Photograph via snooOG

This is a subreddit dedicated to challenging the idea that nature is good.

“In sober truth, nearly all the things which men are hanged or imprisoned for doing to one another, are nature's every day performances. [...] The phrases which ascribe perfection to the course of nature can only be considered as the exaggerations of poetic or devotional feeling, not intended to stand the test of a sober examination. No one, either religious or irreligious, believes that the hurtful agencies of nature, considered as a whole, promote good purposes, in any other way than by inciting human rational creatures to rise up and struggle against them.”

— John Stuart Mill, “On Nature

Every animal on Earth is doomed to die from the instant they are born. The lucky ones will live a life mostly free from suffering, however most do not.

Individuals of r-selected species give birth to many offspring, most of their children will die painfully before reaching adulthood. Animals in the wild lack access to the essentials of medicine and technology, dying and suffering from diseases, starvation, dehydration, predation, natural disasters and parasitism as a matter of ordinary occurrence.

Bioconservatives believe that humans should not transcend their biology because it's not natural, which stifles anti-aging research and stigmatizes the concept of biological immortality.

Here, we believe these things are not OK. The meme that nature is good is a harmful one, and one that infects many disciplines, from medicine to environmentalism.

We seek to develop a community centered around the concept of defeating the bad parts of nature.


Recommended reading:


Support organisations which are working towards making nature less terrible:


Related subreddits:

/r/natureisterrible

8,611 Subscribers

34

A Mother's Loss, A Baby's Hope: The Wild's Harsh Reality (clicked by Igor Altuna)

5 Comments
2024/10/19
21:31 UTC

1

What Happens After the Universe Ends?

1 Comment
2024/08/15
04:29 UTC

64

Nature is sooo unfair to women!!

Like literally, it feels like God or nature is against women, we have period every fucking month, we have to go through monthly symptoms caused by PMS that makes us go crazyyyy, we are the ones that have to carry babies and have to go through painful child birth and pregnancy, and after when our periods are over, we have menopause which AlSO comes with horrible symptoms that last for on average 7 YEARS, well men have it easy, they dont have periods, symptoms, pregnancy or menopause. But we also have physical disadvantages, like men are stronger and faster then us, if it wasn't for nature women weren't be oppressed, it fucking nature that did us dirty, society fucking hate us and so does whatever that created the universe and humans, I personally sometimes feel depressed and suicidal cus of the female biology. It so fucking unfairrr, I really hate it HERE

27 Comments
2024/08/09
18:46 UTC

6

Do you think climate changes can end humanity?

With how things are going now, it seem like climate changes are getting worst and worst, I wonder if it could end the entire humanity as whole cus us humans can't live in a environment that is TOO hot or too cold, and most people don't seem to care about global warming, humanity doesn't seem like it will last long 🤷🏽‍♀️.

6 Comments
2024/08/09
14:32 UTC

26

Mother Nature Hates Animals (7 Reasons Why)

I appreciate the effort of Humane Hancock because he puts light on the suffering of wild animals that are not caused by human beings. A lot of nature lovers see human beings as the ultimate evil (even though not all humans are evil) and consider nature as some sort of loving, caring, wise, aesthetic and kind thing. They also succumb to the nature fallacy and do not consider wild animal suffering a bad thing. If that is the case then why did human beings invent stuff (like medical etc) to save themselves from the indifference of Nature? Wasn't Human beings dying, starving, living under constant stress and fear a natural thing? My point is that suffering is bad, (whether it is caused by human beings or nature) and it should be reduced. Right now we are not technologically near as advanced as needed to reduce the wild animal suffering, but who knows what is going to happen in the future? So, we should atleast be alert about the wild animal suffering and should consider nature indifferent.

Following is the link to one of his video with the title: Mother Nature Hates Animals (7 Reasons Why)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BfwleTdiP1c&t=818s

9 Comments
2024/07/09
14:06 UTC

22

The biological reason behind infanticide

Hey everyone, I found some interesting information while browsing Reddit the other day and thought some of you might find it insightful. I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments!


Infanticide:

"According to the sexual selection hypothesis, infanticidal males gain a reproductive advantage by killing unrelated infants. This makes the females stop nursing and become sexually receptive again, increasing the males' chances of siring the next generation. Females don't ovulate while nursing, so they're not receptive until their current offspring are no longer dependent on them. By killing the young of other males, infanticidal males ensure their own genes are perpetuated, potentially passing on the infanticidal trait to their offspring."


I can't guarantee this is 100% accurate, but I did find this information in a study by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). I've also heard about this behavior in male lions from a YouTuber. Male lions will kill the cubs from previous males to stop the lionesses from nursing, making them receptive to mating and allowing the new male to sire his own offspring.

It's worth noting that some animals kill their infants when they have little chance of survival or to prevent disease spread, which is a more merciful, protective action for the other offspring. However, I know some people will argue that we shouldn't impose human emotions on natural behaviors, since it's just how nature works. But even if we understand the biological reasons behind it, it's still a horrible and tragic situation.

Yes, there's a biological reason behind infanticide, but that doesn't diminish the suffering inflicted on those infants. The suffering is still terrible.

2 Comments
2024/05/27
16:30 UTC

58

Why is it so hard for people to reconcile with the fact that nature is terrible?

Alot of the times, people will deny that nature is anything but fair and good. Nature= Good in their eyes, so therefore anything that occurs in nature, no matter how bloody or gruesome is just natural. It's okay.

27 Comments
2024/05/25
22:17 UTC

3

Help me understand this standpoint please

A coworker linked me to this sub via a post about wolves and predation.

a particular comment has me baffled as to why someone could feel this way, and why people support it.

the comment, or part of it in question is

"How are we gonna convince those type of people that nature is cruel and we should help end wild animal suffering even if it means interference?"

How can we challenge the idea that nature is good, when the concept/idea of what good is is man made?

If i tried to imagine myself as any other organic living entity on this planet, in any scenario i can't see an outcome of wow, nature is bad.

I would like to think that nature is not good nor bad, that it just exists. And that events we are able to see/are aware of are only good or bad based on our opinions, and the opinions of others that we base ours on in most cases, as a lot of us don't live or experience said scenarios anymore.

As cruel as nature seems at times, nature is just as loving and kind 10 times over i feel. I also feel you really cannot control nature.

Quoting the above quote "we should help end wild animal suffering" If i am understanding this stance correctly, you want to kill predators humanely so they don't kill pray inhumanely, if only so nature isn't so cruel in the predator/prey dynamic. But, if a predator has the means to kill humanely, they are allowed to exist? If this is the case, how is this humane for the predators who have no choice but to survive by killing inhumanely?

Or, assuming that all predators kill inhumanely, be it a tiger who goes for the throat and kills quickly, vs a Komodo dragon who, let me tell you, is not an easy site to watch them eat, especially larger prey. How is that fair or humane to the Tiger?

The concept of helping end wild animal suffering by going out and killing the wild animals we deem as killing inhumanely in a humane way, seems inhumane to me?

 Am i misunderstanding this concept?

At the end of the day, nature is natural, and it happened before us, and will continue after us. And that us getting involved to that level doesn't help nature, it only helps us with our feelings on how nature handles itself.

My personal stance is that nature is neither good nor bad, right or wrong. It just is, and we are apart of it. Because we are so far advanced in ages, that i think we have lost sight of how we came to be. Like, say, 10,000 years ago, when our early ancestors where hunting mammoths. I don't think there were any easy or clean ways to kill them. I can imagine is was brutal and terrifying and frightening for both the human and the mammoth.

Do our ancestors deserve to be euthanized humanely because they lacked the tools for a humane kill? Or is it now that we have advanced, and that the idea of being able control nature is real to some, that nature has evolved from bad but necessary to unnecessarily bad? Even than, as just another resident of nature, what gives us the right to try and control it?

7 Comments
2024/05/21
21:52 UTC

17

The Dodo bird and the breeding argument

The most used argument against predator removal is that prey species will breed out of control and destroy the environment. Here comes the Dodo bird.

The Dodo was a bird species that enden on an island without predators. According to the beforementioned theory of outbreeding, the Dodo should have consumed all the ressources on the island and starve. What happened instead was that it thrived.

The problem came, ironically, when humans settled the island and brought with them predators like cats that ultimately lead the the Dodo's extinction.

Now fair, the reason was that the Dodo lost the ability to protect itself aganst predators because it lived without them for so long. Bun the main thing is that the Dodo slowed its reproduction rate because there was not a need to fear predators.

So could this happen to other prey species in absence of predators ? This can also be seen in humans: We breed less the more developed we become.

1 Comment
2024/05/14
19:31 UTC

2

Why should we interfere with Nature?

1 Comment
2024/05/06
17:32 UTC

2

Transhumanism Roasted By An Extinctionist

Watch the video to know about it.

https://youtu.be/fGCG4XGV_D0?si=nWnjOLM-I3Lt0yCV

0 Comments
2024/05/04
03:02 UTC

15

Has anyone else noticed that conventional "humanity-vs-nature" ethics get weird in the context of Africa, since humans are from there?

So, this community is very aware that many "human problems" are actually just problems with nature in general, like violence, competition, etc... Self-hating anthropocentrism is still anthropocentrism and suffers from similar logical flaws is the basic idea. So, it's a lot more complicated than a black and white "humanity versus nature" dichotomy, since humans are entirely the product of nature and evolution and so on -- and it all took place in the rugged, high-evolutionary-pressure continent of Africa, which explains some aspects of humanity.

Perhaps the most unsatisfyingly incomplete idea you see get tossed around is that we are an invasive species. The one oversight in that idea is Africa... It's a funnily overlooked issue. Are we allowed to do whatever we want to nature in the Horn of Africa, just because we're from there as a species? Obviously not. It just goes to show how important it is to see the big picture here. I've even heard someone say that humanity is an invasive species in the context of Africa before once... There are way less arbitrary ways to argue for conservation, honestly.

4 Comments
2024/05/01
05:08 UTC

12

The "neo-gods of nature" and their modern day venerators' ability to hold back progress is a significant problem that needs to be taken into account and opposed

You have these certain people and many to some of them actually make up a significant portion of both anti-trashumanists and anti-transgender people in spite of them claiming they don't think the universe is of intelligent design.

They can stifle scientific progress and oppose its development because they think "Its arrogant and delusional for humans to tamper with the sacred processes of nature such as evolution and etc".

They still treat the "forces of nature" as things worthy of veneration even if they bring nothing to the well-being of life generally without intervention of humans. Even though the image or ideal of what they venerate may not match the uncoordinated mindless force of reality.

Gene editing, transhumanism or ability to change your body is seen as "an act of sacrilege against the sacred processes" by these people. I think they are common in the U.K but not sure. Whether intentionally or not these people create what can be considered "the god of or the god evolution" and "the god, biology".

The biggest "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" to the point of total meltdown from these people I imagine is if someday humans were to find out and prove that other universes exist then bring in forces that care about stopping suffering among life from one of those to give our shitty version of nature the overdue makeover it needs.

6 Comments
2024/04/11
03:47 UTC

0

Why do you think that nature is that bad?

Granted that some animals and humans can be malicious and act like assholes out of their own free will, but I don't see why I should conclude that life itself is bad.

Life has given us:
-An amazing self healing and self repairing body that does its best to keep us as safe and as healthy as possible
-An amazing capacity for thinking deep thoughts
-The possibility to experience joy
-The ability to experience awesome dreams and lucid dreams for free, how cool is this?
-The ability to enjoy the sun, which is a good source of energy and feel the wind on our skin
-Seeing the beautiful stars at night
-The ability to feed ourselves from sustainable win-win relationships such as pollination or eating fruits and helping it spread its seeds

No, really the problem seem more to be with individuals abusing their free-will to be assholes and initiate harm against other sentient beings than life itself being bad.

If everyone behaved properly, we would have far less problems than we currently have, which hints that the problem may not be life itself.

25 Comments
2024/03/16
20:48 UTC

25

Does anyone know of any good texts critiquing the increasingly widespread view of nature as a pristine and harmless Eden that we have corrupted?

5 Comments
2024/02/23
08:16 UTC

8

What's the deal with this?

I got into an argument with someone about India's plan to reintroduce cheetahs to their country by importing them from Africa. The person was complaining about it, saying that they should be importing Asiatic cheetahs instead, because African cheetahs aren't native.

But what's the difference? There are only minor genetic differences between the two, and they're considered the same species. I brought this up and the person backpedaled, then went on about how India needs to help Iran conserve their cheetah population, and then import the Asiatic cheetahs from there once there are enough. Apparently bringing in African cheetahs is just the easy option and a "publicity stunt". But it would be okay, apparently, if Asiatic cheetahs were extinct. What's wrong? Is Africa is too far away? Are they too different from each other? How different can they be?

And then this silliness: "India-Iran relations span centuries marked by meaningful interactions. Indeed, the two countries shared a border until 1947 and share several common features in their language, culture and traditions. [...] There is/was a golden conservation opportunity here, therefore, together with the attendant benefits of positive international profile for both countries, and a continuation/deepening of a relationship between two countries with already long-standing ties."

Hey, guess what. The Indian ecosystem doesn't care where its cheetahs came from. I'll bet if African cheetahs weren't considered a separate subspecies, this person would be fine with it. This idea is built 100% around what this person thinks is aesthetically pleasant, and not about what the ecosystem actually needs. This is a perfect example of the "appeal to tradition" fallacy.

Nature also doesn't care about "international profile". That is far more of a "publicity stunt" than anything. It makes zero difference from the cheetahs' perspective, or any sentient being's perspective, other than some judgemental humans.

Also, how much would shoving some cats around even make towards "international profile" anyway?

And even if Asian cheetahs were better, is it really that horrible to put African ones there in the meantime? Is it not possible to import cheetahs from Africa and also work with Iran?

What's with this?

3 Comments
2023/11/22
01:11 UTC

115

Infanticide in Nature: Why Animals Hate Their Babies

11 Comments
2023/09/23
08:04 UTC

90

This Joseph de Maistre’s quote on nature is tremendous and fits right in here.

You’ll probably disagree with some of this French philosopher’s philosophy, especially his politics but his views on nature are spot on:

“In the whole vast domain of living nature there reigns an open violence, a kind of prescriptive fury which arms all the creatures to their common doom. As soon as you leave the inanimate kingdom, you find the decree of violent death inscribed on the very frontiers of life. You feel it already in the vegetable kingdom: from the great catalpa to the humblest herb, how many plants die, and how many are killed. But from the moment you enter the animal kingdom, this law is suddenly in the most dreadful evidence. A power of violence at once hidden and palpable … has in each species appointed a certain number of animals to devour the others. Thus there are insects of prey, reptiles of prey, birds of prey, fishes of prey, quadrupeds of prey. There is no instant of time when one creature is not being devoured by another. Over all these numerous races of animals man is placed, and his destructive hand spares nothing that lives. He kills to obtain food and he kills to clothe himself. He kills to adorn himself, he kills in order to attack, and he kills in order to defend himself. He kills to instruct himself and he kills to amuse himself. He kills to kill. Proud and terrible king, he wants everything and nothing resists him.

From the lamb he tears its guts and makes his harp resound ... from the wolf his most deadly tooth to polish his pretty works of art; from the elephant his tusks to make a toy for his child - his table is covered with corpses ... And who in all of this will exterminate him who exterminates all others? Himself. It is man who is charged with the slaughter of man ... So it is accomplished ... the first law of the violent destruction of living creatures. The whole earth, perpetually steeped in blood, is nothing but a vast altar upon which all that is living must be sacrificed without end, without measure, without pause, until the consummation of things, until evil is extinct, until the death of death.”

4 Comments
2023/09/22
12:02 UTC

330

made a painting of how i feel about the nature of this world

24 Comments
2023/09/03
21:57 UTC

426

“We have so much to learn from nature...”

17 Comments
2023/08/23
02:30 UTC

44

Severe suffering in wild nature talk by Humane Hancock @ the UK's Vegan Campout 2023

1 Comment
2023/08/06
13:51 UTC

44

On Hard Work

A few years ago, I tried to work out in the gym. I set a goal that within a year, I would grow muscles. It lasted only two months and then I quit. Since then, I gained lots of weight and I still struggle with the idea of getting back in shape, but I realized something. If I go back to the gym, I couldn't work out hard enough to get the reward I wanted, so this dream is kinda dead to me, but I still envy muscular men.

Until very recently, I thought I could do whatever I wanted without putting myself through distress and still get rewarded. I thought I could squeeze as much as I'd like, and get the juice I need.

Turns out the world doesn't go this way. To get "rewarded" or compensated, you have to put yourself through distress and trauma, there's no escape from that. But here's the kicker, what if nothing is worth getting yourself in such distress to begin with? What no amount nor quality of juice justifies squeezing so hard?

This puts me in a very hard position. I'm not given the choice to play easy and get an easy reward, but there's a minimum standard that I have to do, and if I don't do it, I'm screwed. This is true not only for gym workout, but for education, work , and other things that require some sort of an effort. This place is hell

30 Comments
2023/08/05
15:39 UTC

17

Are there any prominent contemporary pessimists who aren’t ontological materialists?

4 Comments
2023/07/09
17:06 UTC

20

Efilists tend to think of heat death of the Universe as the end, but actually it's not. It's just another phase. After heat death comes recurrence. Endless recurrence.

10 Comments
2023/06/07
03:47 UTC

Back To Top