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I think the hard part is that it's hard to deny that, in some sense, we *are* special. It might just be our own ignorance, but as far as we know, we are the only beings in this universe who reason, who love, who act according to abstract principles, or for whom the concept of 'technology' even exists. So, those who *emphasize* our specialness, when they are opposed by people who deny that we are special in any sense, feel easily the right to scoff.
On the other hand, it's pretty clear that our specialness isn't special. On the one hand, we are the zoon logikon, the beings that reason. But we're also small mammals on an unremarkable planet orbiting an unremarkable sun. That's why I want to draw the distinction between recognizing the ways in which we are, apparently, special, and emphasizing that uniqueness. We are in some way special, but we need to recognize our place in the larger whole.
To paraphrase Kant, there are two things, the contemplation of which ought to 'put us in our place.' That is, the starry heavens above and the moral law within.
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"Die Deutschen meinen, daß die Kraft sich in Härte und Grausamkeit offenbaren müsse, sie unterwerfen sich dann gerne und mit Bewunderung:[...]. Daß es Kraft giebt in der Milde und Stille, das glauben sie nicht leicht."
"The Germans believe that power must reveal itself in hardness and cruelty and then submit themselves gladly and with admiration[...]. They do not believe readily that there is power in meekness and calm."
-- Friedrich Nietzsche
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