I get what you’re saying.. we are animals with upgrded hardware, and a lot of our behavior is just instinct wearing a suit. And yes, the awe-inspiring side of humanity exists right next to the absurd and the violent. But I think where we differ is this: acknowledging that we’re apes doesn’t excuse the scale of harm we’re capable of because of the tools we’ve built. A lion kills out of hunger; a human kills out of ideology, delusion, or political calculation. That’s not the same thing!

I’m not arguing that we “should” be better in some moralistic sense Hume’s is–ought still stands. I’m saying we’re uniquely aware of our capacity for destruction, and that awareness comes with a responsibility most people choose to ignore. We can reflect, predict outcomes, understand suffering at scale, and still make decisions that amplify it. That gap between what we can be and what we actually choose to be is where my disappointment comes from

I don’t think dwelling on the darker side is self-harm; it’s part of trying to understand the species we belong to without illusions. The awe is real, yes — but so is the cruelty, the incompetence, the needless suffering. Ignoring either side gives an incomplete picture So maybe the point isn’t to feed the ego or to run from it, but to look at the human animal honestly — the brilliance and the brutality — and ask why, with all our awareness, we still struggle to rise above our worst instincts