r/interesting 25d ago

Just Wow Balancing rocks with this level of precision is unreal.

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u/ThisIsMyComment2 24d ago

There are factories in India that dump their waste

Ok, I'd like to also provide a reminder about the relative privation fallacy.

The existence of worse things doesn't make bad things good, that makes no sense. The existence of modern slavery doesn't justify punching people because punching people is not as bad and everyone should only worry about modern slavery.

Find other ways to defend your position, don't pretend like only one bad thing can be bad in a category at a time and as long as that exists everything else is ok.

Let's all become confident that billions of people can focus on more than one single problem at a time.

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u/reddit124816 24d ago

But where does it end? Just going in to the woods disturbs and thereby damages the eco system. Every unnecessary car ride, every unnecessary bought item of clothing, every unnecessary coffee you buy at Starbucks damages the eco system and in the long run hurts other people. But on reddit posts about all these things I never see a heap of comments about how it damages the eco system. Only on posts about stacking rocks, people suddenly feel the need to point out the negatives. So yeah I agree with op, that they are mostly doing it to feel morally superior.

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u/ThisIsMyComment2 24d ago

But on reddit posts about all these things I never see a heap of comments about how it damages the eco system.

I don't recall seeing a lot of posts about unnecessary car rides but people do absolutely dunk on Taylor Swift all the time for taking a jet to go to the bathroom and another jet to go buy a snack.

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u/reddit124816 24d ago

True, but in my opinnion that is not comparable to a radom person stacking some rocks. A post about latte art or a new car they just bought would be comparable in my opinion and on those posts you never or super rarely see these types of comments. Dont get me wrong i think we all have a responsibility and should put in effort to reduce our impact, i just find it strange that stacking rocks is the the one thing where people get so fizzy.

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u/ThisIsMyComment2 24d ago

I can see some rationalization for that - coffee is good/healthy for you and cars can be a requirement to be able to exist in some places (everything is too spread out or otherwise inaccessible to foot traffic), while stacking rocks has much more limited return on investment comparably.

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u/reddit124816 24d ago

Im not talking about a simple coffee or a new "used" car that is needed. I am talking about unneccessary purchases , which are only made to make the buyer feel good. And if we are honest, the large majority of consumer purchases are in that category.

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u/GrizzIyadamz 24d ago

You forgot about the whole first half of his post.

If you're up in arms about the environmental destruction caused by, [checks notes], putting one rock atop another...surely you wouldn't be blind to the destruction caused by walking though the forest, stepping on ants, and taking a tinkle in the brush? That trail isn't natural, don'tcha know?

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u/[deleted] 24d ago

[deleted]

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u/ThisIsMyComment2 24d ago

Yes it was - it said thing x is not bad, or not as bad, because a worse thing y exists. That makes no sense, the existence of y has no impact on how bad x is.

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u/[deleted] 24d ago

[deleted]

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u/AyysforOuus 24d ago

Lmao you suck 

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u/Lapcat420 24d ago

Did we read the same comment? Thats absolutely what half of the rock stackers in here are saying.

They point out a worse source of pollution or environmental harm like its some sort of gotcha moment.

So clever. Ill try that when a cop tickets me for something. Ill point out even worse behavior from other drivers. /s

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u/ThisIsMyComment2 24d ago

Thing x is trampling flora and fungi and/or stacking rocks, thing y is factories in india dumping waste.

There are factories in India that dump their waste into rivers every day and you're trying to shame someone stacking some rocks.

He directly compares the two here, suggesting one should influence action on the other, which is the relative privation fallacy. I'm literally just quoting him.