Would you still keep your status if there was a cure?

[cam1972]

Sorry, that's the point to you and others. Not to all of us.

To me the sensation is enough. This is not an extreme sport for me.

I agree. I don't get this whole mind concept that we are animals, so we behave like them. We are NOT animals. We are HUMAN BEINGS. And as you stated, it is not an extreme sport! It's about the pleasure, not a race to see how fast I can kill myself. I would take the the treatment. Hell, I've been through chemo and radiation to save my life. Why not do this as well?

[HungLatinDom]

Well, to be fair, human beings are animals. Sentient animals, but animals still.

[cam1972]

But being "sentient" is what sets us apart from animals. We do not behave as animals do. Do you live in a barn? A dog house? Do you eat hay? Do you bed down in straw? Do you shit in an open field? You may like to act like an animal in bed, but that does not make you an animal. Geez, dude. Quit thinking with your dick and think with your brain for a minute. Some guys on here think about one thing and let that one thing rule their entire existence, totally missing out on what other great things life has to offer them. I love sex just as much as the next guy, but I'll be damned if I'm going to let it shorten my life. So many talk about getting full blown AIDS and dying with it and how great that would be. I stared death in the face with cancer and let me tell you, it isn't fun. Talk brave now, but get to that point? You'll wish you had thought differently.

[GermanFucker]

But being "sentient" is what sets us apart from animals. We do not behave as animals do.

The fact that we're human doesn't mean that we're not animals - and vice versa. Why does it have to be the opposite - why can't we be both?

Do you live in a barn? A dog house? Do you eat hay? Do you bed down in straw? Do you shit in an open field? You may like to act like an animal in bed, but that does not make you an animal. Geez, dude.

I think some perspective is needed here: Billions of humans - e.g. in Africa, parts of Asia - live in barns, i.e. they share their housing with their farm animals. Your ancestors did too, during the European middle ages. And they bedded down in straw and shat on fields, just like hundreds of millions of people still do today. Categorizing these behaviours as subhuman would be racist. Which I don't at all think you are. But your choice of criteria as to what qualifies a human is IMHO not useful at all.

Quit thinking with your dick and think with your brain for a minute. Some guys on here think about one thing and let that one thing rule their entire existence, totally missing out on what other great things life has to offer them.

What sets the human animal apart from the rest is indeed self-awareness, the ability to reflect upon one's actions and to chart one's own destiny, the realization that life is precious and that one should experience it to the fullest.

I love sex just as much as the next guy, but I'll be damned if I'm going to let it shorten my life. So many talk about getting full blown AIDS and dying with it and how great that would be. I stared death in the face with cancer and let me tell you, it isn't fun. Talk brave now, but get to that point? You'll wish you had thought differently.

Ironically, going full blown AIDS, i.e. deliberate self-destruction is supremely human, as is the fetishistic pleasure of hurting oneself or others. It is NOT AT ALL sexual in the animalistic sense, but something that takes place in the mind. If our sexuality is a duality of human thought and animalistic instinct, AIDS fetishism is a mindtrip and therefore almost purely human.

[cam1972]

Ok.... Never mind. I hate arguments. If you think you are an animal, that's fine. I choose to believe I'm not. We are all different. We believe different things. That's what makes us all unique. And I am most definitely unique. And damn proud of it.

[HungLatinDom]

For hating arguments, you are very fast picking them.

"Geez, dude. Quit thinking with your dick and think with your brain for a minute. "

Please try to be less judgmental and stop assuming things about people. You know nothing about me, so those comments are not based in any facts. I think with my brain. The fact that I am an animal does not mean I do not think.

And it does not matter what you chose to believe. You can choose to believe you are purple and you have wings, that does not make it true. We are animals, we come from animals and we behave like thinking animals. If you don't like it, so be it, but there's no denying reality. And, nowhere I said anything about HIV fetish, or anything like that. We are animals, that's all I said.

GermanFucker:

"Ironically, going full blown AIDS, i.e. deliberate self-destruction is supremely human, as is the fetishistic pleasure of hurting oneself or others. It is NOT AT ALL sexual in the animalistic sense, but something that takes place in the mind. If our sexuality is a duality of human thought and animalistic instinct, AIDS fetishism is a mindtrip and therefore almost purely human."

Amen, amen, brother. Non human animals do not hurt themselves looking for pleasure, AFAIK.

[GermanFucker]

@ cam1972: Are you referring to me? In that case I got the impression that you haven't really pondered what I wrote.

As to us two being animals: That's not a question of belief. That's simple FACT. Humans are neither plants nor fungi. Humans are a spieces of apes.

The very fact that we can have intellectual arguments is what sets us apart from other animals (not western living standards!!). Of course as a human I'm sentient. But that doesn't mean that I have to subscribe to the fundamentalist christian worldview that man was created out of thin air.

BTW: You're one hot fucker!

Edited December 21, 2011 by GermanFucker

[loadme68]

Well honestly, I don't think cam1972 picked an argument. He was stating his opinions which apparently didn't set well with others who have differing opinions. And sorry, we are not animals. Technically, we are mammals. Animal is a term used to label "any member of the kingdom Animalia, comprising multicellular organisms that have a well-defined shape and usually limited growth, can move voluntarily, actively acquire food and digest it internally, and have sensory and nervous systems that allow them to respond rapidly to stimuli: some classification schemes also include protozoa and certain other single-celled eukaryotes that have motility and animallike nutritional modes. " Further, the definition of animal goes on to use as its second definition "any such living thing other than a human being." Before we start ranting at each other maybe we should realize that others will not agree with us and have the right to state that fact.

[HungLatinDom]

"Well honestly, I don't think cam1972 picked an argument. "

When you say stuff like "quit think with your dick, use your brain", you are picking up a discussion. You are not addressing a claim or an argument, you are making up stuff about another person that you don't know and insulting them. We do not want that kind of flame wars here.

"And sorry, we are not animals. Technically, we are mammals."

As a biologist, I suggest you study zoology in depth. All mammals are animals, who are part of kingdom Animalia.

As I have been saying, the problem is not to disagree, but to do it in a polite way without being judgmental and attacking others.

[loadme68]

I frankly don't care what you are to be perfectly honest. His comment was a fair one and was his opinion. By penalizing him and banning him, you have effectively censored his speech. Furthermore you have no business taking the tone of a lecturer with me or anybody else because we do not agree with you. It rather begs the question as to why you got so upset about what he said. Personally, I think human beings are quite a bit more advanced than animals.

[HungLatinDom]

He is not being censored for thinking different.

You think different, in a polite and civil way and you are not being moderated. When you start insulting other users and, when called on it, start being even more insulting, it's time to take a break. We do not want forums full of flame wars, and this is the aftermath of people like him, message after message of clarifications that could be avoided if people would just not insult.

As for humans being more or less advanced, that does not makes us less animal. I have to eat, sleep, shit, fuck and my genome is 98% identical to chimps. I do not really see what's the big deal about assuming we are animals. Get over it. And, sorry you do not like my tone, but I am indeed a biologist, and you make an incorrect claim about biology.

Having said this, let's not hijack the thread, please and let it go again to its origianl subject.

[bearbandit]

If I could get rid of HIV, I'd do it in a heartbeat. But given the way that medicine is moving I don't see that as a likely option. Given a choice I'd far rather get rid of diabetes (a gift from early anti-retrovirals). With today's meds I'm far more likely to die as a result of diabetes than HIV.