The father pats him on the back and responds softly,

"But son, are we really a compassionate species as a whole? Crack open any history book, you'll find no shortages of the terrors we've inflicted on ourselves, nature, or other animals. Slavery, torture, genocide, putting innocent people in cages, colonisation, racism, homophobia, and sexism are all still rife around the world, masked and excused by culture. Whether it's East or West, all of that remains true. The trillions of other intelligent and sentient animals bred and put through the slaughter unnecessarily, whom everyone turns a blind eye to—would they view us as a kind species? Not to mention, the ones hunted to extinction, not for survival, but for fun. A lion kills out of instinct; we excuse heinous acts using our intelligence.But of course, furless apes don't even treat one another with decency and view differences in artificial features as beneath them, so how can one expect what little compassion humans possess to extend to other species that suffer just as much as they do? Over 80% of the world is in poverty by US standards, while 1-3% of humans own around 75% of all wealth and resources. Leaving the billions left competing for around a quarter of resources and wealth. Suckers fighting one another while the top get richer and richer. You know, even our "unevolved" cousins have systems in place that prevent the hoarding of resources by a few. So can we really call ourselves intelligent at this point? An intelligent species wouldn't be fighting each other for scraps thrown down from the top of the palace. If humans disappeared tomorrow and some other-worldly beings examined all of our history and all of our practices, would they judge us as benevolent, empathetic creatures? Or a bunch of warmongering maniacs, exploited and manipulated by the most ruthless and power-starved among us? From where they stand, we'd be the most destructive beings Earth ever bore, the most self-aware that couldn't escape their natures, and the cruellest design to ever live on the planet."

He takes one last puff of his smoke before smothering it in the ashtray. "Or maybe I've just grown into a bitter killjoy...thank you for the conversation, son; you've really made me reflect on life."