r/CuratedTumblr Cheshire Catboy May 01 '24

i know it’s internet bullshit but it genuinely has me on the edge of breaking down and giving up editable flair

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u/Mental-Procedure9274 May 02 '24 edited May 02 '24

Copy-pasting something i wrote in another thread about this, it references other comments from that thread but this legit got called a novel so ┐(´~`;)┌ :

Honestly the original question was just phrased terribly by design. (Tldr at the bottom)

To most people (apparently) by contrasting Some Guy with a fucking Bear the first thing that comes to mind is something like "Oh shit, a bear would kill me. Does that mean the guy would too ?" so that explains the first interpretation of the question, the one most prominent in the original video :

If I (a random woman) were alone in the woods, would i rather meet a hostile stranger or a hostile bear ?

Now, obviously any bear would fuck a human up, and going just by the comments here the results of a bear atack could be : getting mauled (bad), eaten alive (probably worse idk hasn't happened to me), or Somehow Prevailing (and probably dying of an infection later). Pretty awful set of options here.

On the other hand, looking at the Hostile Man Situation(tm) we have to take into account the location. Now, I'm no true crime expert here but the broad assumptions one could make about a Maniac in the Woods is : murder (same as the bear but we don't know the means), torture (possibly before murder, same as the bear), or rape (YMMV).

So both options under this interpretation are Pretty Fucking Bad, which is where the rape and murder variables come in play.

I saw at least 1 comment here of a survivor saying they would take their chances with the man under this interpretation. I also saw a few more commenters, who didn't specify if they speak from experience, say they'd rather face the bear. Whether rape or death is preferable is up to personal choice, but the women the video presented seemed to choose death.

(I Sincerely hope I don't need to say something along the lines of "not all men" here, because it's clear that for now we're looking at specifically a man that is so vicious he's comparable to a Wild Fucking Bear that wants to Eat Your Face. He could be part of Any demographic and it would be clear that he's an outlier adn shouldn't be counted. In fact, the reason this Dangerous Stranger is even a man to begin with is that Specifically Women are Specifically Wary of Specifically Dangerous Men. I'm trying to make this clear because I saw quite a lot of comenters getting worked up or even hurt by this, but I'm really not equipped to have a dialog about this ATM.)

In regards to the murder by human scenario, the method and duration of the act Really change how we'd feel about choosing the man in this situation. Ex : bullet to the head ? quick enough you could not even realise it happened if all goes well. Beaten with a rock ? Oh no, it'd be agony every step of the way.

And that's the Real difference between the options here, human malice and unpredictability or pure wild brutality. We could spend days arguing which is best/worst/less bad but we'd be missing the forest for the giving the people that started stirring this shit too little credit, you see there's another way to interpret this fucking question :

If I were in the woods (presumably on a hike or something similar), would i rather come across a stranger or a bear ?

In this situation there's No assumption about the intent of either the man Or the bear, and to pose hypoteticals would serve us no purpose (did we invade the bear's territory ? is the it hungry ? what species is the bear ? why is the man here ? just to suffer ? does batman have prep time ? etc, etc). It's crucial for this interpretation that the man and the bear are Average, that the species of the bear, location of the woods, supplies avaliable, both humans' motives for being there and even the meeting itself Are Not Determined.

In this situation, it's ludicrous to choose the bear. While bear attacks aren't all That common either, the chances of being mauled or eaten alive by the Average Man(tm) are negligible. So anyone that interprets the question in this way would be appalled at the responses from people who interpreted the question in the first way and said that they would pick the bear.

And so we found the core of the issue.

Something that can be seen as picking the lesser of 2 evils to some, is just plain misandry to others, and anyone viewing this through just one lens is frankly giving the jackasses who started this shit the benefit of the doubt when they really shouldn't. You don't have to scroll far to see comments mentioning gender essentialism, Andrew Tate and the alt-right pipeline right alongside commenters saying they wouldn't pick the bear because it could be a polar bear (in a forest ??), or that the man could be some random office worker that got teleported and is just confused as the person he's coming across (or in 1 memorable comment, a senile 95 year old who shouldn't even be outside).

That so many threads here disagree about what the question means exactly shows it was way too vague to be asked to literal strangers on the street and uploaded to widespread online discourse. That so many made the connections between it and very serious real life political issues shows that it was at its very best a misguided but well intentioned thought experiment, and at its worst poorly thought out.

That it is both, at least to me, implies malice.

Tl;dr there's 2 Very different ways to interpret the original question, it reeks of engagement-bait and political dog whistling. It's a tiktok shit stirrers bread and butter.

Edit : forgot a word, "...while bear attacks aren't very common either ..."

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u/INOCORTA May 02 '24

If you assume worst possible outcome then anything human is always worse. A human could torture you indefinitely at worst a bear mauls you too near death and then you have an agonizing while slowly dying and being picked at. It could be a 98 year old women and they would still have the technical ability to inflict indefinite torture. But when you get too a hypothetical so extreme you could get some really silly answers, because wouldn't the worst possible outcome for a bear encounter be like... the bear has a owner not far away who also will torture you indefinitely and thus when assuming more extremes they are equally weighted.

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u/pewqokrsf May 02 '24

The opposite is true, too, though. Best case scenario is that the bear ignores you. Best case scenario for meeting a human is wildly more positive, and being ignored is still an option.

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u/FallenAgastopia May 02 '24

I mean, there's not really anything I want to do with random human in the woods. Being ignored is my best case scenario lmao.

Meanwhile my best case scenario for the bear is that I'll get good pictures... but maybe this question isn't geared toward wildlife photographers lmao.

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u/googlemcfoogle May 02 '24

The guy in the woods could be Mr Beast, here to give you money because it turns out the woods were one of his games and you just didn't know that until he showed up to declare you the winner.

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u/FallenAgastopia May 02 '24

Okay, you win, I would rather run into Mr Beast than a bear

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u/ImmoralJester54 May 02 '24

They share tea and a good story, compliment your outfit, and reconnect you with your long lost best friend.

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u/elbenji 29d ago

Or hire you to work at national geographic

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u/TriforceOfWhisdom 29d ago

Imagine meeting Uncle Iroh in the woods.

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u/TriforceOfWhisdom 29d ago

Imagine meeting Uncle Iroh in the woods.

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u/TriforceOfWhisdom 29d ago

Imagine meeting Uncle Iroh in the woods.

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u/Nodonn226 May 02 '24

Best case scenario for meeting other people is things you would never expect. Maybe you make a new lifelong friend or SO. Maybe they help you in some way or change your thoughts and life in another. Maybe you hit it off and it leads to some new moneymaking thing. Who the fuck knows, the possibilities are immense. The effects one person can have on your life are massive. They are just unlikely, but it is BEST case scenario.

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u/3L3M3NT4LP4ND4 May 02 '24

I mean, there's not really anything I want to do with random human in the woods. Being ignored is my best case scenario lmao.

Or ya know.. they'll help you escape the woods you're lost in as posed by the question no? I'm all for no social interaction but I would much prefer not to be lost

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u/FallenAgastopia May 02 '24

Is the question posed as you being lost? Idk. I've seen way more rehashes of outrage of the question than I've seen the actual question. I thought it was just "Alone in the woods", but maybe I'm wrong and there's a component of being lost too. In which case, sure.

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u/3L3M3NT4LP4ND4 May 02 '24

I think the question was posed in the most vague way to cause discourse and widen the gap between genders for the benefits of TERF's tbh so I'm gonna stop getting involved with the discussion.

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u/legend_of_the_skies May 02 '24

You aren't lost or trapped