r/HonestHotTakes • • Sep 12 '26

serious hot take The dehumanization of babies and the humanization of pets is horrible

I’ve heard people say that they would save their dog over a Random baby and that is insane. This even extends to the Clancy case where people are supporting a woman who MURDERED her 3 kids. People also calling their pets their “kids” is weird as shit. People are crazy and the world is going to shit

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14

u/masonic-youth Sep 12 '26 edited Sep 12 '26

Where are the child's parents in this hypothetical situation? Isn't it their moral and legal responsibility to care for their child?

Also if I'm truly in a fight or flight scenario, I'm not making a choice I'm acting on instinct or training.

You can get upset about what people say online all you'd like but no one knows what they'd do in that situation unless they've actually been in it.

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u/Sorry-Visit-6743 Sep 13 '26

That's my question every time someone asks this. Where os the parent or babysitter that's supposed to be watching the baby? A kid thats too young to save themselves from a fire is also too young to be home unsupervised.

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u/Hairsacknose Sep 13 '26

The caregiver died or is incapacitated in some manner . What do you do then? 

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u/Sorry-Visit-6743 Sep 13 '26

I save my birds. They're smaller, more fragile, and easier to handle. I don't even know how to hold a baby, let alone rescue one, and I don't necessarily have the strength to carry a child. I also need my birds, they're emotional support animals. I'm autistic and crying children activate my fight or flight, so I'm probably not the ideal rescuer.

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u/Hairsacknose Sep 13 '26

So selfish. Gross

2

u/Sorry-Visit-6743 Sep 13 '26

Interesting that you think being disabled is gross. I actually have sensory issues related to the sounds of crying children, and a particularly piercing cry or scream could cause me to freeze up and drop the child. That's an actual neurological issue. My hot take is that ableist people aren't good human beings.

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u/Hairsacknose Sep 13 '26

  Interesting that you think being disabled is gross

I'm sorry, I didn't realize your disability came with a lack of reading comprehension. 

  I actually have sensory issues related to the sounds of crying children, and a particularly piercing cry or scream could cause me to freeze up and drop the child

OK, dropping a child issue worse than letting them die, we can all agree I guess? 

Your lack of humanity is not a disability issue. The fact that you would choose birds over a human says a lot about you 

3

u/AvelyLancaster Sep 13 '26

The fact that you make these hypotheticals that will never happen so you can show your moral superiority says a lot about YOU actually

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u/Hairsacknose Sep 13 '26

I don't make those up, they exist 

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u/AvelyLancaster Sep 13 '26

Can you show me one instance of this happening?

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u/Right_Count Sep 12 '26

I would save my pet but I don’t understand the “where’s the parents?” question. Is it more ok for the baby to die if the parents aren’t around? Less ok?

3

u/Practical-Way-9044 Sep 12 '26

This is so fucked up to me because in an emergency maybe the parent is incapacitated and not negligent? Everybody is so pissed about “hypotheticals” but can’t hypothesize a parent could be walking down the street and collapse from a medical emergency. Are you going to let the child just wander into the street into traffic because they aren’t your responsibility?

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u/Right_Count Sep 12 '26

But also, even if the parents are the most negligent, what does that have to do with the baby? I wouldn’t be less likely to save a dog or cat just because it had a negligent owner.

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u/Practical-Way-9044 Sep 13 '26

Good point. As a parent it just makes me ill to think there could be an emergency and it’s pure luck whether or not I’m in proximity to these psychopaths who would give zero f’s about my kid or a fellow human being in general. We didn’t make it this far as a species without helping one another.

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u/masonic-youth Sep 13 '26

Am I gonna let a random kid wander into traffic? Of course not but I don't really consider that to be "saving" them.

Am I gonna run into traffic and risk my life to save someone else's kid? Probably not if I'm being realistic.

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u/Practical-Way-9044 Sep 13 '26

I think for the purpose of this thought experiment the most likely scenario is to keep from harm versus actually saving. Like when people say “I want you to save the baby and not me” if they are afraid of complications in childbirth. In reality, there’s a team for the mom and a team for the baby and rarely if ever someone has to choose one or the other. I doubt anyone would be in a position of saving a child or their pet. This post started by pointing out dehumanizing children and humanizing animals and became a trolley problem in disguise.

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u/masonic-youth Sep 12 '26

If we're contriving hypothetical situations to become upset about can I not be upset that this hypothetical baby's hypothetical parents are hypothetically neglectful?

My point is that baby has people responsible for it and it ain't me.

1

u/Right_Count Sep 12 '26

Sure, I just don’t understand the relevance of that to the hypothetical scenario.

1

u/masonic-youth Sep 12 '26

I have a pet that I am responsible for.

That baby has parents that are responsible for it.

It's really that simple.

1

u/GigaChadRedPill Sep 16 '26

Let’s make it even simpler: rescue a pet or a human baby.

If you’re not picking the latter, there’s something seriously wrong with the way you view other people.

1

u/Hairsacknose Sep 13 '26

  Where are the child's parents in this hypothetical situation?

Let's say they just died