Yes. This. This is exactly what I was talking about in my other comment in this thread, posted before seeing this one. I was calling it scale instead of scope, but this is spot on.
People will pick and choose how things function at one scope and pretend it applies at others. A lot of people, even good well-meaning ones, will do this and fall into this trap, but particularly shitty people will do this as a way to justify their garbage beliefs or justify hurting and demeaning others. Exactly like OP image “you don’t matter 'cause the Earth doesn’t give a shit if you’re here or not as one person. You’re a loser for thinking you matter at all.” FUCK that. You absolutely matter, just not necessarily at the scale/scope of an entire planet orbiting a star, that doesn’t invalidate or make meaningless the just as real scale/scope at which you DO matter. Their application of how things function at scale is always used in whatever way is beneficial to them at the moment or to prove whatever flawed, even sadistic point they’re trying to make. Capitalists, politicians, and of course the mass media under their control do this constantly and it infuriates me to no end.
Agree. Nihilism is often the baby steps of philosophy. Yes morality is constructed and socially useful, that’s why we need it duh. The absurdity of the “capitalist individualism vs communist collectivism” is that for your own selfish happiness you need to be loved and cared about and helped and supported by a greater structure. But I guess it’s a lot easier to feel good about being edgy than accepting that the world needs to move forward
I think this happens with so-called “rationalists” too, in the opposite direction. They zoom out the scope of time and reality so they can say stuff like “we need to sell our cat’s organs and donate to MRI for the infinite simulated orphans in the future” despite the fact that’s insane and absurd to anyone who lives in the like, present, earth-oriented scope
In this example they replace God in their minds with an arbitrary moral system that happens to justify worshipping billionaires
