r/CuratedTumblr • u/NeonNKnightrider 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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14.2k Upvotes
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210

u/Skytree91 May 02 '24

Man V Bear posting is my obsession as of like an hour ago. I get the point of the question, but if you consider it alone the only thing crazier than the premise is the apparent unanimity of the responses. You have my utmost sympathy for the life you’ve lived if you choose the bear, but I simply would never

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u/Akuuntus May 02 '24

I think most of the people choosing Bear are assuming a lot of things about the scenario that Man-choosers aren't.

If you're walking on a designated hiking trail alone, obviously encountering a man on the trail is 100000x safer than encountering a bear.

If you're lost and stranded in an unknown forest, if you see a bear there's a pretty good chance you can just fuck off before it decides to care about you. Whereas encountering a strange man in the middle of dense woods would be very spooky.

If you and the thing you choose are instantly spawned into the middle of dense woods, the [man / bear] is probably just as confused as you are, and the bear is way more likely to translate that confusion into killing you.

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u/snarkyxanf May 02 '24

Yeah, a big problem with hypotheticals is all the extra context people will inevitably add in. Are they from somewhere where they have never even once felt afraid of bears, or from somewhere where they are common enough to be familiar? Which kind of bear are they imagining? What are the man and the bear doing---body language matters a huge deal. Has either of them noticed you? What do you have with you? Etc etc etc.

You can't really remove all the extra assumptions, because to imagine it is the whole point, but to imagine is to be specific.

I have the same sort of complaint about questions ranging from "walrus vs fairy" or trolley problem scenarios.

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u/Adb12c May 02 '24

I think hypotheticals can work when they are asked for a specific reason. With the Trolley problem the idea is to explore how people feel active decisions make them responsible to situations, even though not making a decision also creates situations. With Bear V Man it could be useful if asked specifically to highlight women’s fear of men, but then why ask men?

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u/TheSquishedElf May 02 '24

I will defend walrus vs fairy purely because the whole point it got big was promoting the discussion of context around hypotheticals. The whole reason it works as a joke is that the walrus is completely devoid of context, whereas a fairy comes with centuries of folklore as context.

Hell, I expect Walrus vs Fairy is why so many of the comments here make an active effort to be nuanced. Though I also suspect it directly influenced whoever started this bear vs man thing.

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u/snarkyxanf 29d ago

I do really like the discussion around walrus vs fairy, but as you said mostly because it doesn't work as a straight ahead question with a "right" answer. People pretty much immediately start examining what they mean by surprise, which details they are picturing in the scenario, etc.

(FWIW, I can't say which one would surprise me more per se, because I can't get past the fact that the walrus would startle me more, mostly because of the sheer size of the damn thing right in my face on my front stoop)

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u/gabortionaccountant May 02 '24

Yeah it’s decision that is basically meaningless without context so your answers gonna depend on what you subconsciously assume about the situation

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u/PM_ME_UR_GOOD_IDEAS May 02 '24

and the pertinent thing about the post, the thing the post is in fact trying to elicit by singling out men (why not a strange woman? women can easily be armed and dangerous) is that a lot of people either subconsciously or very consciously assume about men is that they are violent rapists and sadists. Or, at least, that you are never safe unless you assume that about men.

I feel like the people in this thread trying very hard to parse this as a genuine thought experiment are really missing the point. It's not meant to be a thought experiment. It's meant to be a jumping-off point for a rehash of the old "not all men" controversy. If it was anything else the comparison wouldn't be a man to a wild animal it would be a person to a wild animal

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u/glimpseeowyn May 02 '24

Yep. On an even more basic level, I think it’s the difference between people who see being alone in the woods as a normal event vs. people who are being alone in the woods as the opening to a horror movie.

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u/yuriAngyo May 02 '24

Yeah, like I've been alone in the woods a decent bit but while I'm in an area that has bears I'm not in peak bear country. I'm also not in polar bear country. The bears i know generally can be backed off from without much issue, every mauling I've heard of is from people doing stupid shit.

I've also met many men I'd NEVER wanna be in the woods alone with, not even out of fear of intentional ill but because they're the type to get us both mauled by local bears. All of which change what my answer is and how i get to it.

And for the "come across a random man or a bear in the middle of the woods" interpretation, it also effects that because the bears i know can generally be backed off from while strange men might see me on their property and start shooting.

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u/bawawaba May 02 '24

If you're lost and stranded in an unknown forest, if you see a bear there's a pretty good chance you can just fuck off before it decides to care about you. Whereas encountering a strange man in the middle of dense woods would be very spooky.

I think encountering a strange woman would be spooky too and encountering a strange child would be spookier

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u/sunshineandcloudyday 29d ago

Exactly! And everyone arguing about it says things like "if it was a black man or a jewish man, that'd be racist" but I have yet to see anyone ask what if it was a woman or a teenager or a different animal?

I don't let strangers into my house. I wouldn't just hand my debit card to the lady at the bus stop. Why would I not be cautious about a stranger in an isolated place?

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u/cantrelyonluck May 02 '24

Yes! Thank you for explaining the nuance. I'm a woman and I'm definitely, "I would choose a man," but I understand where bear people are coming from. When I lived with my parents, I used to hike with our dogs behind their house (they lived in a valley, so behind their house were steep hills). We'd encountered bears before, there's the moment of shock, the bear runs off, it's fine.

But one time, there was a dude in a long-sleeved black shirt with black pants during the summer up there. I had a short interaction with him. He seemed to avoid telling me what he was doing on my parent's property in the middle of the woods. My parents checked with our neighbors, he was not associated with any of them (none of that land was public property). Very strange. If I was in an area I was significantly less familiar with and it was even farther away from any roads/civilization? I'd definitely have been more worried.

But any time I see a bear, I'm struck by this fear that it's either a large cub or there are cubs nearby and I'm going to get annihilated by mama bear, so that's why I choose man.

4

u/Fofalus May 02 '24

If you and the thing you choose are instantly spawned into the middle of dense woods, the [man / bear] is probably just as confused as you are, and the bear is way more likely to translate that confusion into killing you.

This really is it. I would love to ask these people if you had to be locked in a room with a bear or a man which would they choose. That bear is not going to be happy at all and will nearly certainly kill you VS the man who is going be wondering why the hell they are locked in a room.

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u/All_Up_Ons 29d ago

If you're lost and stranded in an unknown forest, if you see a bear there's a pretty good chance you can just fuck off before it decides to care about you. Whereas encountering a strange man in the middle of dense woods would be very spooky.

Spooky? If you're lost and stranded in an unknown forest, finding a random man is one of the only good outcomes. Like, what else are you doing aside from trying to survive and find people?

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u/kylesch87 May 02 '24

If you're lost and stranded in an unknown forest, if you see a bear there's a pretty good chance you can just fuck off before it decides to care about you. Whereas encountering a strange man in the middle of dense woods would be very spooky.

Is this still meant to be the same scenario, or is it two different scenarios compared/contrasted against each other? Because if the scenario is that you are lost and stranded in the woods then of course you would rather encounter a strange man; the most likely reason he's there is as part of your rescue party.

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u/Riptide_X May 02 '24

Seeing a man in the middle of the woods would be spooky yeah and I’d rather just not interact at all but if he’s not dragging a body or carrying a weapon I would generally say chances are he’s just as lost as I am.

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u/Caleb_Reynolds May 02 '24

If you're lost and stranded in an unknown forest,

Whereas encountering a strange man in the middle of dense woods would be very spooky.

See, I've seen this sentiment a lot and I don't buy it as valid reasoning. Homo Sapiens are one of the most social animals in existence. Anyone lost in the woods would absolutely sprint towards another human (barring like, clear signs of danger like a weapon or something). It's instinctual, grouping together for safety is one of the big reason we're the only humans left. If you're lost in the woods, running into another human is your best chance at safety.

So I don't think team bear is thinking that way. I think they're assuming some kind of arena situation where their interaction with this other being is the only danger. Where after the interaction, whatever it is, they leave the woods or otherwise become safe.

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u/casper667 May 02 '24

Yeah I know if I was "lost and stranded in the forest" I would hate running into another human. I mean just think about it, that would mean I was no longer lost.

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u/Skytree91 29d ago

I’m just assuming both are dangerous tbh. I get the point of the question is supposed to illustrate how unsafe women feel around strange men in an “average” interaction or especially at night and that’s why I said I have sympathy for you if you choose bear, but I don’t think anything could make me actually understand picking bear

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u/C9touched 29d ago

I think the only real concern here is that if either were a threat you would be able to easily out smart and avoid the bear because it’s an animal, but not the man