Asklemmy

Are you talking about pain (the sensation)?

That is merely a component of suffering. That should be avoided imo, but it isn't the only thing that should.

It can’t even be said that pain should be avoided, since discomfort is often associated with worthwhile, and ultimately pleasant, activities.

I struggle to find such activities. I'm not stating there are none, just that I can't remember any off the top of my head.

Define suffering so we can be on the same page.

A negative experience which causes physical or psychological distress to a person or group of people, often for extended periods of time or with lasting effects after the experience itself has stopped (ie. trauma).

Pretty meaningless, and in the context where people actually want to exist (and for others to exist), somewhat misleading.

Saying this statement is meaningless is the same as saying philosophy itself is meaningless, but it can be a valuable tool to help us define our values and offer a base from which every other aspect of life can be evaluated more precisely. I don't see how it's misleading at all.

Please, read my palm. Tell everyone what my beliefs are.

That statement was more hostile than I intended it to, in hindsight, and I see how it might be hypocritical to complain that you are lumping all "young liberals" (as it seems) in the same strawman when I ended up doing the same to you. I was quite offended by the transphobic comment so I reacted in an emotional way. Sorry.

I believe you follow some conservative beliefs (from an american standpoint) pretty strictly and that might be the bias shown in your arguments towards traditional values and against modern, sort of more "extreme" or what you perceive as catering to emotions rather than rationality (which I think they really aren't, but even if they were, emotions are a part of life, if you value life, surely you'd value emotions too?). My critique to that is that conservatives often fail to see that their own positions and points of view are similarly coming from an emotional, and not rational, place, as they react to change by clinging to traditional views "because that's what has been done until now", without any actual rational reasoning for them. Like you yourself said, just because a lot of people follow a given ideology doesn't make it right, the majority might be wrong, it's just the majority. The same could be applied in this situation.

For instance, you might see having children as the rational choice because that's what humanity has done since it began existing and due to it being a necessity for the continuation of the species, but is that not your natural, biological impulses speaking for you? Is it truly rational, logical thought? Why does humanity have to keep existing? You might have arguments and answers to those questions and that would make them rationally valid, but "just because" is not a rational answer.