@Wylie,
Quote:Do you think that it's immoral? It seems pretty normal to me, maybe childish. Most of my male friends wouldn't think twice before planting a foot over some busy anthill, nor would I. Up until now I thought the only downside was having to scrape their little exoskeletons off my sneaker later, although I usually just leave them stuck down there anyway.
I suppose intent factors into moral evaluations of interactions with nonhumans. You're clearly conscious of these entities when you slay them -- this is not like our unknowingly killing trillions of microorganisms everyday and couldn't do anything about it even if we could spare the ludicrous moment to remember it now and then.
So, are you doing it for practical reasons, such as considering them be a potential threat or menace? Are you playing a predator role to keep their populations in check? If you're doing it purely out of hate for bugs, or sadistic impulses, or it's just an unthinking reflex/habitual action -- then you should have no problem generating a conclusion about the behavior yourself.
If the latter circumstances should be applicable, whether or not you should give a #$^% afterwards about re-programming yourself for the sake of "bugs" is again up to you. Most species probably aren't on an endangered list (looking kind of gloomy for domestic bees in recent years, though) and it's probably unlikely that they'll hire a hit man to whack you.
