# Humans Celebrate the Right Kind of Violence by Robert Sapolsky > “But there’s a complication, which is we don’t hate violence, we hate the wrong kind. And when it’s the right kind, we cheer it on, we hand out medals, we vote for, we mate with our champions of it. When it’s the right kind of violence, we love it.” > **— Robert Sapolsky**, *TED2017, “The Biology of Our Best and Worst Selves,” April 2017* ## Sources and Context - **Original or near-original source and full passage:** [TED2017, “The Biology of Our Best and Worst Selves,” April 2017](https://www.ted.com/talks/robert_sapolsky_the_biology_of_our_best_and_worst_selves) — Full talk recording and independent transcript at https://nntrn.github.io/read-tedx/transcripts/robert_sapolsky_the_biology_of_our_best_and_worst_selves.html; TED’s own event report independently confirms the core contrast: https://blog.ted.com/the-biology-of-behavior-robert-sapolsky-speaks-at-ted2017/. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Simple Reminders|Simple Reminders]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Evolutionary Roots of Silicon Valley|The Evolutionary Roots of Silicon Valley]] - **Article:** [[articles/Humans and AIs as Entangled Learning Systems|Humans and AIs as Entangled Learning Systems]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Human Animality|Human Animality]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Moral Compartmentalization|Moral Compartmentalization]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “But there’s a complication, which is we don’t hate violence, we hate the wrong kind. And when it’s the right kind, we cheer it on, we hand out medals, we vote for, we mate with our champions of it. When it’s the right kind of violence, we love it.” — Robert Sapolsky, TED2017, “The Biology of Our Best and Worst Selves,” April 2017 https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-robert-sapolsky-humans-celebrate-the-right-kind-of-violence ```