There's a certain personality type that derives more pleasure from the loss of another than a gain of their own.
Gore Vidal's vversion is well-known: "It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail."
I guess people tend to believe that everyone else is like them, including those of us that aren't sadistic. And if a full 33 percent are sadistic, is it something that even should or can be corrected?
Now that's terrifying.
However, it is much better to simply look at a flower and meditate on how amazing it is that it exists at all than ruminate on the facts of how cruel the world is.
It's not merely selfishness, it's sadism.
NY for example:
"Thus, for example, even a spill of a gallon of oil into a ditch is covered."
https://ag.ny.gov/environmental/oil-spill/oil-spills-homes-a...
California:
"California Penal Code 374.3 makes illegal dumping on public and private property punishable by a fine up to $10,000. Also, pursuant to Section 117555 of the California health and Safety Code, a person who dumps illegally is punishable by up to six months on jail."
https://pw.lacounty.gov/epd/illdump/penalty.cfm
Calcycle page on illegal dumping:
Doesn't sound like a nice guy.
Even guys that are seemingly nice have very odd beliefs. It really opened my eyes as to what to talk about at work, even if the topic didn't seem 'fringe' to me. Older dudes out west/here in Colorado in particular grew up with a sort of cavalier notion of what freedom and America means to them, and telling them what they can or cannot do on their own property is the heart of the matter.
Most people believe crazy things, even those that don't tend to not behave in consistent alignment with what they believe to be true or good.
Yea, but their property doesn't exist in a vacuum. They have neighbours and there's always downstream effects.
I'd say part of this attitude is an effect of rights becoming disconnected from responsibilities. Like, sure, one may "own" the land, but it better be well take care of, be a good steward. Not because there's immediate bad effects, but because those effects diffuse into the real non-human world.
This is the only type of correct answers for those cases
Of course the staff were all furious at hearing this, which he seemed to enjoy. I asked the other owner if he was serious and he said he 100% was serious. So I approached the owner dumping the oil why he did this, why he didn't just empty the oil into a container, etc. Long/short he said it didn't effect him and couldn't care what any of us hippies though of the practice.
I would say that there is a fundamental difference in the way people are; they either view things in the long-term and strive to ensure the best for all of us. The other side of the coin are people that just want what's best for themselves and maybe their family. They don't care or want to believe such actions have long term effects on them directly.