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I think what he means, and I’m going to use it as a jumping off spot to my point, is that we all too frequently assume that others have the same motivations we do, when this is not true.
It’s true with different cultures and it’s true with animals. For example, polar bears, with all their fur, tend to look all teddy bear and cute, but they’re very fierce and aggressive predators. It’s common for people to mistake polar bear aggression for curiosity until the claws and the teeth come out.
With human cultures, for example, most of us here on FR view children as precious humans to be protected. In some other cultures, children are viewed as being smaller, easier to beat up, and easier to turn into slaves.
Animals and humans both have complex emotions, but it’s very dangerous to assume these emotions and motivations are the same throughout all cultures and species, although there are commonalities (self-survival, sex drive) among most.
A couple of years ago Rush did a monologue where he started out talking about how people subscribe human qualities to their pets because it makes them feel better about themselves...but the bottom line is that all animals really want from you is to be fed. Or something like that. He said it’s because we are kind people. He then went on to state that’s how people are dealing with the Muslim problem. They don’t want to believe that there are really humans out there who really hate so much that they do what they do. They want to believe deep down inside that they can be changed. That they are, basically, HUMAN BEINGS. But we know that’s not the case. We cannot change their hearts and minds...we can’t.
Of course, Rush said it a hell of a lot better than I just did!