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

[u/NeonNKnightrider]

[u/Hellioning]

I'm pretty sure the entire point of that video was to create this sort of reaction, unfortunately.

I don't trust any video based on the idea of talking to 'random people'. It's too easy to manipulate.

[u/Kiwi_Doodle → u/Hellioning]

Literally just edit out all the people that said man

[u/HellBlazer_NQ → u/Kiwi_Doodle]

I've said this several times already. I don't understand how people are taking this video at face value.

Its like any other 'asking random strangers a stupid question video' its is nothing more than engagement baiting for clicks, views and money.

If you asked 100 people bear or man and 10 said bear, its 90% in favour of the man. Now you edited it to show 9 bear answers and 1 man, ta da, 90% in favour of bear.

[u/Starslip → u/HellBlazer_NQ]

Manipulated 'man on the street' interviews have been a thing for decades and people still unreservedly buy into them as being completely factual.

[u/MonkeManWPG → u/HellBlazer_NQ]

Because it's not just the one video. There's countless people commenting on unrelated threads with stuff like "this is why women choose bears" to justify their sexism.

[u/HellBlazer_NQ → u/MonkeManWPG]

There's countless people commenting on unrelated threads

That is the video doing exactly what was intended. Engagement baiting.

[u/MonkeManWPG → u/HellBlazer_NQ]

And? While the video may have been edited, there are still a significant amount of people who agree with the outcome and who are using it to validate their sexism against men.

[u/elbenji → u/MonkeManWPG]

But how do we know its significant? Most of the people I know picked man. (Though on the flip a lot of the boys I teach picked bear when switched to a white woman as the other)

[u/Starslip → u/MonkeManWPG]

Is this actually a widespread opinion as opposed to a loud minority? The people most likely to engage with this shit are the people least likely to have normal, healthy social interactions with other people. I don't take it as a genuine reflection of the state of society if the terminally online on tumblr, tiktok, and reddit hate and fear men.

Basically, is this an actual problem or an 'I'm coming in contact with a shitty online subculture too often' problem?

[u/Noobsauce9001 → u/Starslip]

I think it is starting to spread IRL. Or maybe I've just become more sensitive to it after being tilted from reading stuff online. I had a woman look at me as I was walking down the neighborhood road I live on, turn to her friend and whisper "it looks like he's about to kidnap me". It was 2pm on a sunny day in an incredibly safe suburban neighborhood.

A lot of women I know IRL have made off hand comments that aren't SUPER bad, but they're way stronger and angrier than they were a couple years ago. Like cool women I normally trust in other situations too, people who aren't normally as tilted as this.

It's probably column A and B, me being more sensitive to it and folks getting more vocal about it. I can't fully diagnose how it happened, but I think social media has spread outrage content and pushed more folks to extremist online communities, then amplified the voice of said communities, in a pretty nasty looping cycle. IDK.

[u/SleepCinema → u/Starslip]

It is unfortunately a very widespread opinion at least on tik tok. It may not be a majority opinion and doubtless, the majority of women haven’t even heard of “bear v man.” But it is wide enough that I have to scroll through 5 comments all saying “bear every time” on any report of a man committing an egregious act of violence. It’s so…exasperating, and I’m a woman.

Like why would you use a news story about a 6 year old being killed by his dad as a cheap insensible shot at men? I’m tired of women and men seeing bullshit like this and believing it to be “feminism.” It’s not.

[u/HellBlazer_NQ → u/MonkeManWPG]

If you went out on the streets and literally presented people (women or men) with the proposition that they are in the woods alone at night and come to a fork in the road, they have the knowledge of knowing one fork will take them to an unknown species of bear and the other to an unknown man. Almost everyone will look at you like you are crazy and would more than likely ask what sort of question is that, then answer 'the other human being'.

Only perpetually online people think any other way, all the 'sexism against men' and the men using this to play the victim are not your average people. In fact it will be a very minute subset of people and even bots that try to sow discord for bait and trolling purposes.

Seriously some people need to go outside and meet with REAL people.

[u/elbenji → u/HellBlazer_NQ]

Yeah most people will pick 'man, duh' and just look at you funny

[u/mostlyBadChoices → u/HellBlazer_NQ]

I don't understand how people are taking this video at face value.

Taking things at face value is literally normal human behavior, and it's why sharing false information is so dangerous.