I’ve seen enough variation in how people react to butterflies and moths not to believe that for a second. Even among people who don’t empathize much with the former, you’re still much more likely to see appreciation than the kill-it-with-fire you get here.
As for empathy, though, mine isn’t reserved for those who reciprocate but for anything capable of suffering. We have, you know, discussed that before; but to recap, I think it’s as deeply dishonest to pretend an arthropod is just a computer as to pretend it is a person. Living things are on an evolutionary continuum; my negative response to stimuli ultimately comes from the same place as the centipede’s. The one is much more significantly developed but there is no hard line to make one real and the other not.
