philosopher-under-the-sea

[philosopher-under-the-sea]

[philosopher-under-the-sea]

Fire Eel (Mastacembelus erythrotaenia), family Mastacembelidae, order Synbranchiformes, found in freshwater habitats in SE Asia

This species is not a “true eel”, but is in a group called the spiny eels.

photographs by Stan Sung

[philosopher-under-the-sea]

take my mermaid quiz boy

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the trolley problem vs. systemic oppression: a comic.

[philosopher-under-the-sea]

This is your daily reminders to be soft and slow and gentle and patient and compassionate with people. Hold space for their big emotions because we are all unhealed somewhere and kindness is always ever the only way forward.

[philosopher-under-the-sea]

I am needlessly riled by all the posts and humans' inherent goodness.

Humans are *neutral*, man. That's why improving society really needs to look like making doing the right thing the path of least resistance.

A majority of people sit right around the tall bit of some sort of bell curve with "does selfish shit that could hurt others by default, is generous under the right circumstance" is one side of the peak and "is generous by default, will do selfish shit that could hurt others under the right circumstances" on the other.

You can observe it any day by observing people under stress (eg: bad traffic, busy supermarket, an unexpectedly un/pleasant interaction with a stranger who is very different to you) - and in yourself in circumstances you find particularly stressful.

[philosopher-under-the-sea]

Stop just asking "is it normal?" and start asking "is it harming anyone?" Lots of harmful things are normalized in this society and lots of things considered weird or rare are completely harmless. Whether something is considered normal or common shouldn't be the deciding factor in whether it's okay

[philosopher-under-the-sea]

no connection without willingness to be seen. no connection without curiosity and understanding, without compassion and forgiveness. no connection without tolerance and inconvenience. no connection without the courage to divulge feelings, thoughts and needs. no connection without putting the health of the bond before pride or the comfort of hiding. no connection without embarassing yourself a little. without hard conversations, or the space and will to learn and grow. without accepting and loving imperfection

[philosopher-under-the-sea]

For this very purpose, when I was 12, some friends and I actually trained to be weird in public and not caring what people think. We decided that once a week we would show up at middle school with a piece of weird uncool outfit (like ties with animals, seems cool to me now but I can tell you it was not considered cool nor normal at this time and place), and do ridiculous stuff like chicken dance for no reason.

And it did work out very well, I am highly comfortable being weird in public and being different from the norm. Also, when you let your weird shine, it is easier to find your fellow weirdos, and I'm so deeply thankful I did:)

accepting that you’re objectively weird & owning it is infinitely better than being constantly desperate to appear normal to people who don’t even matter to you

[philosopher-under-the-sea]

Joy Sullivan, from “These Days People Are Really Selling Me On California”, Instructions for Traveling West

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[philosopher-under-the-sea]

Mermay 2025 - Day 3 🫧🐟

Mochizuki Honami - Manta Ray

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Manta rays are large rays belonging to the genus Mobula. They have the largest brain-to-body ratio of all fish, and can pass the mirror test.

[philosopher-under-the-sea]

Stop everything. We literally have whale language. We just discovered definitive whale language. We can't translate it (yet) but we literally deciphered that whale calls are not random, and they're not simple. They follow linguistic patterns just like us. They have names for each other.

We're on the brink of ACTUALLY understanding what an animal is talking about, beyond basic warning cries. My childhood dream of being able to talk to animals is like, 1 step away from happening.

And omg if we ever do get to talk to whales, my adhd ass has a MILLION questions. Do they see/use the stars and moon to navigate? Do they have religion? Can they understand other whale species, or is it like trying to talk to a chimp? Do they like people-watching while we're on our boats whale-watching? Do they teach their offspring the way humans and apes do? What's the most annoying animal in the sea?

I want to tell them about us and our relationship to whales. How we have movies about them. We see their jaws in museums and marvel at how big they are. We try to save them when they wash up on the beach. How we made such a big push to outlaw whale hunting and bring back the whale population. How much I hated the novel Moby Dick.

I wonder if they would have questions for us? They can't really fathom the land the way we can understand the ocean. They might be able to see shorelines, maybe some islands. But think of how much land stuff a whale has never seen. They've never seen a cat, or a desert. I wonder if they would know that there must be more land, or assume that it's all just concentrated around the shore.

I imagine they would be curious about our boats, and why we can't swim very well. If they have culture, which I strongly believe they and most intelligent animals do, they might even remember stories passed down about whale hunting. They might ask why we suck at singing. Why do our fins look weird? How would we explain walking to a sea creature?

Of course, that is the one wrinkle - in all linguistic research and animal communication research, we haven't yet discovered a species that also asks questions the way we do. Apes don't seem to care about where or why things happen. They just make the tools and move on. At this point we have no reason to believe that a whale would need or want to ask questions. They have the ocean, they have their food, and they don't even make tools the way we do.

But still... can you imagine really having a conversation with a whale? How amazing and humbling it would be.

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"It doesn't have to be like this. We could have it so much better"

Calligraffiti in Chicago, Illinois