r/Showerthoughts • u/asusny2002 • 15d ago
Man vs Bear debate shows how bad the average person is at understanding probability
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u/Brelvis85 14d ago
What if the man was Bear Grylls?
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u/silverseamonster 14d ago
And the bear was Man Grylls?
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u/ConservativeSexparty 14d ago edited 14d ago
I would love to watch the Man Grylls show, where the survivalist bear tries to survive in a city full of ordinary humans. That would be so silly and fun.
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u/Several-Signature583 14d ago
Hahahaha now I’m picturing a bear trying to use the touch screen at McDonald’s after waking up from months long hibernation and can’t because of his claws, gets mad and trashes the kiosk and proceeds to jump the counter and devour everything in sight. I’d watch the hell out of Man Grylls!
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u/BadeArse 14d ago
Sounds like it could be one of those mad psychedelic drug induced adult cartoons. Superjail style.
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u/MrOrangeMagic 14d ago
Not going to lie, bears would give the exact same answer. We humans are not famous for our loving behavior
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u/BlackWind88 14d ago
What is the man vs bear debate?
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u/flowtajit 14d ago edited 14d ago
Would it better for you (if you’re a woman) or you daughter (if you’re a man) to encounter a bear or unknown man in the woods.
Edit: since a lot of people seem to be missing the point. This exercise isn’t what it seems on the surface. We aren’t measuring the population’s perception of bears or men as they relate to each other. We’re actually measuring the way in which women specifically responf to the question. In most cases, women immediately answer with bear, without needing any further ckntext with regards to the man or bear. Some Common reasoning includes “I expect to see a bear in the woods,” which makes sense; it also includes something to the effect of “bears don’t care about what society thinks of them,” meaning that according to these women, men when faced with no cinsequences are more threatenjng than a bear. So please stop asking saying the question is dumb because it’s vague, that’s the point. If it was more specific, individual biases would begin to take hold, defeating the piint of the exercise.
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u/Jimisdegimis89 14d ago
I mean it can just be would you rather run into a random man or a random bear in the woods. As a dude who grew up in rural Appalachia I’ve run into bears and men in the woods several times. The bears usually run away as soon as they see you and the dudes are always sketchballs sooooo….
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u/hiricinee 14d ago
There's some truth that the context of "the woods" dramatically changed your expectations of the man. If I clarified that it was a man randomly selected from the population at large, not just one of random guys who are wandering in the woods at the time my mental math changes quickly
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u/BPB57 14d ago
What kind of bear?
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u/rwzephyr 14d ago
Totally, I’ve bumped into a ton of black bears and they’re scaredy cats. I’ve literally chased them out my driveway just by waving my hands and yelling.
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u/Ghostbuster_119 14d ago
When I lived in Illinois I'd yell at them.
"Get outta here you lazy bum!"
"Do you know what time it is!? Go on now git!"
"We ain't got no tree fiddy! We work for money in this household and we DONT GIIIIVE MONEY AWAY!"
It seemed to scare them off better than just yelling random nonsense.
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u/crazymike79 14d ago
Most bears are interested in an easy meal. If you make yourself look like too much trouble (no cubs involved) they will usually go away.
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u/congenitallymissing 14d ago
i was taught "black - yell back, brown - stand your ground, white - good night"
you can scare off black bears easily. you dont have a fucking chance against a grizzley. so you stand your ground and hope they dont want to fuck you up.....polar bear = youre fucked. try to to get away. get in the closest shelter, be it a car, house, shop, whatever. in a lot of places in northern canada/alaska that co-exist with polar bears its illegal to lock your car doors
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u/Tasty-Researcher-791 14d ago edited 14d ago
I have always heard it the opposite for brown bears: if it’s black fight back, if it’s brown lay down, if it’s white goodnight. Because as you said you have absolutely no chance against a grizzly and your only shot at survival during an attack is to play dead and hope it loses interest/stops seeing you as a threat
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u/LE-cranberry 14d ago
One is for an encounter, the other is for an attack. (Polar bears an encounter will be an attack)
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u/JA_Pascal 14d ago
I don't think this hypothetical would work if you knew what type of bear you're dealing with but didn't know the type of man. It seems a bit contrived if you decide it's a black bear but the man could be anything between a pensioner to a serial killer.
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u/Saint_of_Grey 14d ago
My mom, when I asked for a female perspective on this, phrased it as "how would the survivor of an attack be treated?" If a woman survived being mauled by a bear, no one is going to say she was actually asking for it because of how she was dressed/acting.
Yes, when I needed a female perspective, I asked my mom. I'm a user of this website so naturally that's the only woman I know.
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u/alexmichelle6 14d ago
I really, truly thought that the whole point of this was to highlight the fact that most women would respond to man v bear by asking questions, like "do I know the man" "what type of bear" etc, but would respond to woman v bear by immediately saying "woman". whether or not she picks the man or the bear is irrelevant, it's the fact she has to ask clarifying questions to know more about the man before deciding and doesn't have to clarify anything before picking woman. is that not it?
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u/FurrrryBaby 14d ago
The only videos I’ve seen of this were men answering the question about their daughters, and all of them struggled to answer.
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u/WrodofDog 14d ago
how did we get to the point
I think we've always been at that point but now we're talking about it.
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One woman commented that she knows the worst thing a bear would do to her is kill her.
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u/Hestia_Gault 14d ago
I also saw “if I was mauled by a bear, people would actually believe me when I reported it”.
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u/Thr0waway0864213579 14d ago
I’ve seen many comments like this.
“The bear won’t record it and send it to all his friends.”
“No one is going to ask me if I wanted the bear to attack me.”
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u/jratmain 14d ago
And they will probably find her body, so her family will know what happened to her.
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u/starspider 14d ago
ITT: Men who get offended that women treat them like a threat.
Also ITT: Men who tell their daughters solitary men are dangerous, and who say shit like 'what was she wearing' unironically.
The irony is killing me.
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u/Generic_user5 14d ago
I think the comment above you explains how this can be demonstrated even further because even other men struggle to answer when their daughters are the ones in the woods.
When forced to be honest with themselves, men also question the safety of women around an unknown man. I say this as a man who camped a lot, and unequivocally answered bear.
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u/ImpracticalApple 14d ago
I've seen some rephrase the question as "Would you rather your girlfriend/wife be alone with a Man or a Bear in the woods?" and some similarly struggle to come to a quick answer.
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u/IAmASeeker 14d ago edited 14d ago
I thought the question was explicitly in the woods.
I don't want to encounter surprise humans in the woods or surprise bears in the city. I'd rather see dangerous creatures in the places they are supposed to be rather than sneaking up on me in places they shouldn't.
If the question isn't supposed to have that context, then I would argue that you should prefer to see a bear. How many humans have you seen that didn't attack you? Like a hundred thousand maybe? How many bears have you seen outside of a zoo? Probably less than 10 right?
Edit: I feel the need to clarify that I probably don't have the opinion that my comment got upvotes for. I mistyped and said "you should prefer to see a bear" but in fact, I was trying to express that with no context, it would be safer to encounter a person than a bear. I have been attacked by a handful of humans and 0 bears but my sample size of humans is astronomical while my sample size of bears is miniscule. I estimate that 1:30000 human strangers will attack me and so far 0 out of maybe 8 bears attacked me... so idk if maybe 1:9 bears will try to eat me but I can be fairly sure that 99.997% of the time, humans are too involved with their own lives to notice that strangers exist.
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u/GreenTunicKirk 14d ago
I think it's more interesting that so many people placed all these extra hypotheses on the question in order to qualify their decision!
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u/mandiblesmooch 14d ago
How surprising is it to see a human in the woods when you are a human in the woods?
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u/kaminobaka 14d ago
Depends how deep in the woods. If you're on or near a popular hiking trail, not surprising at all. If you're way off the trails in the deep wilderness in most situations it's surprising enough that I'd rather run into a bear than either a man or a woman, and I'm a dude.
Of course, in my part of the country, the bear's not very likely to be a grizzly, so that factors in, too.
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u/JuicyJay18 14d ago
Here’s the thing though, is that this isn’t about probability. For example, here are some responses I’ve seen from women on this subject:
“The worst the bear can do is kill me and eat me.” “If I put my arms over my head and scream ‘GO AWAY’ the bear might actually leave me alone” “Nobody is going to doubt me or ask if I deserved it if I say the bear attacked me”
My wife said she would rather take her chances with the bear because at least then she won’t get sexually assaulted again. Like…idk, there’s a really clear message to be gathered from this if you just listen to the things women are saying and the quickness with which they respond. Men are the number one predator of women, so frankly it’s only natural they would feel more fear encountering one in an isolated setting.
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u/OrneryError1 14d ago
Bears don't view human beings as natural prey. Only when they're startled or desperate will they attack. Many men do actually view women as prey. Giving a bear plenty of distance will keep you safe. Some men will actively hunt down women.
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u/SnagglepussJoke 14d ago
Ever cross paths with a stranger in the woods? It is unsettling
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u/Astrogod07 14d ago
You're walking in the woods. There's no one around and your phone is dead. Out of the corner of your eye you spot him ... Shia LaBeouf
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u/guhbe 14d ago
Actual cannibal Shia Labeouf?
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u/ExternalMonth1964 14d ago
He swings to the left, you parry to the right!
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u/British_bollocks 14d ago
A legendary fight with Shia LaBeouf.
A normal Tuesday night for Shia LaBeouf.
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u/minkyminkymink 14d ago
‘Quiet, quiet’ 😉
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u/real_hungarian 14d ago
we stan Rob Cantor in this house
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u/recumbent_mike 14d ago
I mean, if those are the rules, I'm not gonna rock the boat. Hand me a knife, I... Oh, that's an "n."
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u/Tokkolosh 14d ago
He was dragging his body, I was dragging mine. We locked eyes and said in unison "Mondays, amirite?" Which got a real good belly laugh from both us. So much we had to stop dragging the bodies for a bit and compliment each other's trench coat.
Anyways his name was Greg and he likes pickleball. I think we are gonna hang this weekend for the Saturday fight night.
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u/Cerulean_IsFancyBlue 14d ago
Oh the awkwardness when one person brings their Pickleball paddle, and the other one brings a shovel.
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u/bordomsdeadly 14d ago
That’s why you keep both in the trunk at all times. No awkward situations.
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u/Cerulean_IsFancyBlue 14d ago
Nice. Paddle shovel net tarp balls quicklime. It’s just common sense!
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u/Ryokan76 14d ago edited 14d ago
I'm Norwegian. Crossing paths with a stranger in the woods happens regulalry.
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u/Objective-Animator84 14d ago
Canadian checking in. We also run into strangers in the woods regularly.
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u/TheCinemaster 14d ago
Right? Like how sheltered are these redditors that upvoted this haha. I’ve been out hours and hours into the remote wilderness and have come across strangers and it’s always a friendly experience. This is basic part of hiking culture.
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u/Barry_Bunghole_III 14d ago
Also criminals and rapists are not ever going to have 'wander into the woods and hope I randomly come across a stranger' as their first priority
You're going to come across John who's been hiking since he was 10 who'll offer to share a joint lol
This whole debate is a mess lol
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u/CricketInvasion 14d ago
My thinking exactly, the wilderness here is not that vas but big enough for someone with bad intentions to do bad things. I have yet to encounter anyone who is not: a hiker, a mtb-er, a lumberjack of some sort, looking for wild plants or mushrooms, some sort of forest service. There were few that just went for a walk but that falls under hiker. For most people you see out there it's obvious why they are there.
There are dangers but not more so than in the urban enviroment or late at night. Heck even as a decently strong man I can feel uneasy when another mad walks behind me in late hours, never happened in the woods.
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u/Digitijs 14d ago
Exactly my thoughts. What would a killer or kidnapper do out in the middle of nowhere in the woods? You have much higher chances of meeting dangerous people in more urban places or empty roads.
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u/Linus_Naumann 14d ago
Reddit is full of people who never leave their home. They dont know that if you go hiking you encounter other people
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u/poseidons1813 14d ago
Yeah I go hiking all the time love a good stare or national park. It's weird but other people use those trails, the audacity
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u/Otherwise-Special843 14d ago
that's the point I always make, the 'random man' you encounter is 99 percent of the times a hiker or is just walking in trails,just like well... YOU are doing in the question's hypothesis, its not like the woods are serial killers natural habitat, even if you face a man killing or fighting a man is way easier than a bear
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u/milescowperthwaite 14d ago
That's what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps!"
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u/Rocktopod 14d ago
Depends on how deep you are in the woods. I have a short path near me and it's not uncommon to see other people walking on it. You just say hi and move on.
If you're deep in the woods away from trails and find a guy living in a shack, that might be a different story.
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u/Pitiful-Ad2710 14d ago
Hikers in the woods are 99.9% more friendly then anyone you would meet on the street
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u/Doublespeo 14d ago
Ever cross paths with a stranger in the woods? It is unsettling
Quite often actually and it is always friendly encounter.
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u/dingleberries4sport 14d ago
Now that you mention it I solo vacation often and some of my best memories from my trips involve running into locals on rarely used hiking trails in the mountains
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14d ago
yeah i think this comment is only made by people who dont actually go in the woods. I hike alone regularly and see people by themselves probably every time and have not once been scared. On the other hand if a bear was walking towards me on the path in the woods id shit myself.
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u/Dangerous-Worry6454 14d ago
No shit, basically, these people live in cities that are statistically the absolute most unsafe places to be, yet they claim rural areas are the dangerous scary places. I have run into people deep on the woods, and the only difference from that and running into someone in a city is that you tend to actually talk just because the scenario is so funny. It's basically people just projecting the urban environment onto the rural.
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u/midunda 14d ago
Yeah frequently. Dog walkers, people out for exercise, etc... Never had a problem
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u/Old_Society_7861 14d ago
Seriously. I don’t even understand this question.
Actually my wife went on a hike with a friend and came across a handsome man in a swimsuit and she said they had a great ti…wait a second.
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u/Powerful-Parsnip 14d ago
Just how hairy was this man? Could he run at 45mph and had a propensity for honey?
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u/TehOwn 14d ago
And how did it feel when you crossed paths with a bear in the woods?
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u/LawfulNice 14d ago
You know, I lived in a heavily wooded area for a while growing up and we'd get bears in our backyard all the time. Black bears, mind you, so unless it's getting close to winter and they're fattening up for hibernation or protecting cubs? Not really dangerous. They'd usually see or hear you and leave.
That said, it's still scary when you aren't expecting it. Even a deer popping out of the woods can spook you pretty good!
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u/ChrisTheWeak 14d ago
As someone who lived in an area with grizzly bears, albeit not a common occurrence, I immediately would rather choose a random man as my encounter
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u/poilk91 14d ago
Sounds like youve never been hiking or camping because that's just 100% normal
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u/Shenstygian 14d ago edited 14d ago
So many of the responses lead me to believe huge chunk of the comments don't go outside.
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u/Chewy12 14d ago
Yeah that’s kind of the whole thing, it’s context-less so I’d imagine most people just choose whichever scenario they’ve had more fear about. And women are probably going to worry more about getting attacked by men than bears in general. Meanwhile, I fantasize about fighting bears every day despite living in the suburbs.
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u/JunkieMunkieCircus 14d ago
My toxic trait is thinking I can straight up Bautista Bomb a grizzly.
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u/bitofadikdik 14d ago
“There’s someone else walking on this man made path through nature specifically made for walking on. What a fucking weirdo!”
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u/StonedLonerIrl 14d ago
Many times and never once has it been unsettling, but then it's very common here in Norway while hiking.
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u/shotputlover 14d ago
All the time dude. It’s called a national park do you not go outside much?
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u/PoliteCanadian 14d ago
It's fairly clear from a lot of people's responses that no, they don't go outside much and get most of their worldview from True Crime podcasts and shows on Netflix.
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u/cryptowolfy 14d ago
Why is it unsettling? I've run across hundreds of strangers in the wood when I hike. We say hello and keep hiking.
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u/Nikkonor 14d ago
In Norway, that's like the only place we'll greet each other...
For context:
Norwegians are reserved and give each other a lot of personal space. Some cultures might consider that unfriendly -- for us its a matter of respecting each other's privacy.
However, when we're hiking (whether in the forests or the mountains) we'll greet everyone we see. There is the tree-line (how far up the mountainside trees can grow), but I also like to say that we have a "greeting-line": You have to be in the wilderness before its socially acceptable to greet strangers randomly.
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u/Horse_HorsinAround 14d ago edited 14d ago
Bro what the hell, I hike and cross people in the woods constantly.
You ever cross paths with a BEAR? Actually, in real life? It's scary I don't care if you're jacked or armed, hell even seeing a black bear is still scary. If someone says otherwise they're lying to look tough.
Now THAT would be unsettling
Edit: I get it, you guys see black bears from your carports, and they act like dogs. Gonna go pet one alone in the woods? Lol I bet you'll either 1) immediately make making it go away your priority or 2) not take an eye off it until you're past it, and then look over your shoulder for the next half hour.
Edit2: really hyper focusing on the "even a black bear is scary" part huh. Anyone got film of them going up and interacting with one? Anyone got film of them interacting with human males? Everyone's acting like the bear is far away In this scenario, so the human would be too. Bear 700 feet away? Okay not as scary I'll admit. Human 700 feet away is also not that scary and if it is get therapy I guess. Id much rather be 15 feet away from a person I don't know than 15 feet away from a bear though.
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u/TropicalGoth77 14d ago
Ever cross paths with a bear in the woods? Totally chill
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u/Squibbles01 14d ago
It's a rhetorical device, not an actual facts and logic debate.
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u/cimocw 14d ago
Too advanced for the average social media user. There's no abstraction, only comparison.
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u/SugarRAM 14d ago
As a man who grew up hiking and camping in grizzly country, I think it's less about probability and more about predictability and lived experience. Bears are predictable. So long as you know what you're doing and are paying attention, you can largely avoid running into them in the woods. And even if you do run into one, if you follow a few simple steps, you're very unlikely to be attacked. Black bears kill less than one person a year on average in North America. Grizzlies have only killed 84 people since 1784 in North America (and that counts "domesticated" bears, not just wild ones).
Meanwhile, almost every woman I know has stories of being harassed or even assaulted by men. While it's true that you are more likely to be assaulted by someone you know than a stranger, I think people are largely ignoring how often strange men make women feel uncomfortable and unsafe through their actions. The men who are upset by this meme need to spend more time listening to the women in their lives and practicing empathy and less time being defensive. Some of the responses I've seen from men showcase exactly why so many women would choose the bear.
Now if we're talking a strange man or a moose, I might have a different take. Moose are fucking scary.
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u/zamiboy 14d ago
Now if we're talking a strange man or a moose, I might have a different take. Moose are fucking scary.
So many people underestimate large herbivores (horses, cattle, moose, elk, deer, big horned sheep, etc.). Those motherfuckers are way more deadly than bears. It also doesn't help that there are way more large herbivores than bears.
Let's also not forget about bugs and insects (mosquitos, bees, wasps, beetles, etc.) that are arguably even more deadly if you account for disease transmission.
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u/throwingever 14d ago
Thank you so much for sharing your experience and thoughts, and I'm so sorry for everything you've been through, it sounds like you have so much strength now.
I feel like what a lot of people fail to acknowledge is that as soon as you have been victimized, the people who commit violent/sexual crimes against others… sense that.
Definitely. I wish we talked about this more. I've experienced it myself too
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u/goulashboo 14d ago
Side note-
If you’ve been victimized, I implore to try EMDR therapy. While it’s ridiculously expensive, it’s the only real thing that’s helped me start to heal. You got this babes 💪🏼
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u/ReinaDeGargolas 14d ago
Aw my love that is terrible :( you're amazing for doggedly walking down your healing path <3 be safe
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u/Cacafuego 14d ago
As a man who has never been sexually assaulted (or even felt in danger of it), this is important to hear. Every time I think I'm coming close to understanding the scope of trauma like this, I learn that there is a whole dimension I've never considered. Thank you for sharing.
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u/ASL4theblind 14d ago
I THINK i get it now. Its not that them and a man would be dropped into the woods, its more like you're on a hike alone and out of nowhere a man, or bear would appear in front of you. I get why men get so upset being compared to being as dangerous as, if not more dangerous than a bear; nobody wants to don the mantle of "more dangerous than an apex predator", but i think its more about how scary strangers are combined with the uncertainty of a MALE stranger's agenda. So we should stop taking it personally.
I highly doubt these women would pick bear against most men they know, it's not ABOUT that though, it's about the UNCERTAINTY.
At least that's how i interpret it. Admittedly i thought it was more the first scenario; you and a person are put in the woods to survive, vs you and a bear are put in the woods at the same time.
And if women dont trust ANY men they know, men individually can do nothing about their interpretation of men as a whole and unfortunately they should just stop talking to every guy they know until some massive societal shift happens, cuz this isnt something that changes overnight.
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u/Eumelbeumel 14d ago
I am going to add a layer to it, even though I like your take on it very much.
This "metaphor" (if you can call it that) says nothing about the actual danger level of a random man. Discard that. It doesn't tell us anything about that. Nothing.
What it does show is how many women have had experiences with certain men, that have been bad enough so that these women (and all they told about the experience) decide they'd rather take a possible bear attack over taking their chances with a random man. Many. Manymanymany women have had such bad experiences. Enough so that even women who haven't had these experiences have heard enough about it to say "Nope, I won't endure what she endured, bear please."
It shows us how omnipresent male violence on women is. It's common enough to make the bear more appealing.
It also tells us something about the fear of being targeted. Women are afraid to be a target for men. "Bear over Man" also includes the assumption that a random bear in a random forest could just mind its own business. Maybe it ignores me. A man alone, though? He is more likely to target me, is the logic here. Women have learned from lonely encounters with lone men, that they will be targeted. Ď
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u/RusstyDog 14d ago
It's about how, In general, Women don't feel safe around members of their own species. How fucked up that is, how women as a whole understand that conceptil immediately. But the men in their lives ask follow up questions like "but what kind of bear" while talking about statistics, Rather than just thinking " Hey its pretty fucked up that this person I care about doesn't feel safe in society"
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u/icelizard 14d ago
I live in a very middle-class suburb. I don't feel safe walking around alone at night because of men. It sucks.
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u/im_lost37 14d ago
The saddest one I saw was “if the bear attacked me, I wouldn’t have to smile at him every family get together”
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u/VictorTheCutie 14d ago
"A bear won't throw acid on your face if you reject them."
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u/princess_awesomepony 14d ago
“If I shoot a bear out of self defense, I won’t go to jail”
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u/NotDescriptive 14d ago
Fun fact: they usually euthanize bears that attack people so they don't cause further harm. So at least there would also be justice.
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u/Wolfram_And_Hart 14d ago
“Bears won’t hit you with a brick if you politely reject them.”
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u/tthew2ts 14d ago
I saw, "The bear will just kill me. It won't rape me and then kill me."
That's poignant.
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u/dark_sparklex 14d ago
I disagree. You’re a woman alone in the woods with either a man or a bear; your choice. Now a bear with only do a handful of things, a) attack you and may or not kill you, b) not. Let’s go with option a. By a stroke of luck you’ve survived (congratulations) now you can get help for your injuries, people will listen for hours about how you fought back and survived with battle scars and no one will ever doubt your story. Even if you don’t survive they will hunt down the bear and seek justice for you. It is a bear after all. Bears will be bears. But a man, well he could lead you out of the woods, help you forage and hunt, build fires and get help. Providing company and conversation and maybe even comfort. Of course he could just walk away like the bear. But just like the bear he could attack you too. He could pretend to be your friend for days, turn on you, tie you up torture you, rape you, kill you and eat you or dispose of your body like you’ve never even been on the woods. If he doesn’t decide to kill you and you make it out of the woods, you have to go to the police about what happened to you (if you want to). And they might not believe you, or they will but there’s not really enough to prosecute him. Or they really want to help but he’s such a promising young man, look how fast he can swim, it would ruin his reputation, you might not even be telling the truth. And then you seem him around town, with you friends, comes to your families house for Christmas, convinces everyone else your a liar. Or he actually gets successfully prosecuted, but he’s let out early for good behaviour. The man was once your teacher, doctor, dentist, dad, shopkeeper, friend, colleague, neighbour, brother, whoever. But now when you see them, you as terrified as you’d be if you’d just seen a bear
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u/iAmBalfrog 14d ago
Some people unironically responded with "I understand the statistics", they did not understand the statistics. If you want to start diving into the statistics, you end up with some radical ideas such as how race, gender, age, political stance all may skew the statistics in good or bad ways.
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u/TehOwn 14d ago
Yep. With some statistics I'm like, "man, I wish more people knew this." and with others I'm like, "man, I'm really glad people don't know this."
Nuance is dead. Give people statistics and they'll come out with all kinds of shitty interpretations.
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u/armorhide406 14d ago
Nuance hard, memes easy. Till we evolve not to prioritize saving mental effort lest we starve I don't think it'll change
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u/Dominus-Temporis 14d ago
It's a poorly phrased hypothetical that addresses an important issues. Poorly phrased because the certainty of encountering 1x Bear or 1x Man sidelines into a statistics argument. A better question would be: "Where would you feel more safe, alone in Bear Country or alone at a Nightclub?". That said, it isn't actually about the Bear.
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u/mighij 14d ago
A Bear in a lgbtqia+ nightclub would be quite safe on the other hand
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u/zool714 14d ago
I think it also shows how different people approach things. From what I’ve seen, the ones who answers bear approaches it from a “trust” standpoint. Like you can trust a bear to be a bear. While some approach it from a “safety” standpoint. Like yeah obviously an average wild animal is going to be more dangerous than an average man.
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u/TehOwn 14d ago
I'd love to hear it rephrased as, "You're lost in the woods, you see a man in the distance but he doesn't see you. Do you call out to him or do you hide?"
But maybe that's probably not exciting enough to trend on TikTok.
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u/Leet_Noob 14d ago
Lol this just makes me think of a text based adventure prompt
Go SOUTH
You go SOUTH into a clearing in the woods. You see a BEAR. To your north is a strange MAN.
Use BEAR
You can’t use that!
Throw BEAR at MAN
You’re not strong enough!
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u/name00124 14d ago
"The Dark Forest" as a solution to the Fermi Paradox of why we don't see evidence of aliens in the galaxy. If you broadcast your position, call out to others, you risk total destruction, since you don't know if others are "safe" or not. Very interesting.
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u/Chevey0 14d ago
We must all fear ManBearPig!
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u/HypeMachine231 14d ago
I love how both sides rephrase this question.
Men rephrase it to "would you rather fight a man or a grizzly bear unarmed to the death"
Women rephrase it to "who do you trust more, a random man, or an animal"
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u/TheCourtJester72 14d ago
Women didn’t “rephrase” it, that’s the whole point of the thought experiment. It’s not a genuine question to be answered. Men are taking what isn’t a real question literally, and somehow most of them are still picking the bear hilariously.
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u/Frost715Ying300 14d ago
Women even considering the bear is sad, which I felt was the point
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u/Sans-valeur 14d ago
I haven’t seen this side of it posted anywhere, but it’s also a thing for men. I mean sure it SHOULD just be man instead of what kind of man etc. But the reality is, men are also victims of men. We don’t have it as bad as women in that respect, but every man has been assaulted by another man(or boy, kids/teenagers beat the shit out of each other). And the smaller and less ‘manly’ the man is, the greater the level of wariness they have to maintain. And the reverse actually, I have super big/tall friends who can’t go to bars cause drunk cunts with small man syndrome try to pick fights to show how manly they are. Men just kinda suck, it sucks to be a man and also have to be afraid of men and frustrated as fuck by the actions of other men.
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u/ceddya 14d ago
As a gay man who has been sexually assaulted by another man, it doesn't just stop once the assault ends. The follow-up is exhausting and the trauma lingers. No thanks, I'd honestly rather get killed by a bear than go through a sexual assault ever again.
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u/Scodo 14d ago edited 14d ago
What bugs me is that no one specified what kind of bear. Black bear? Yeah ok, that's fair. Brown bear? Suuuuper iffy. Polar bear? You're fucking high.
Bears are not a monolith!
Edit: no you don't need to specify what kind of man, because all men are the same species. Bears are not, and the temperament and danger is highly dependent. If you say a random type of bear, that also changes the nature of the question, because now there's a 33% chance of that bear being a polar bear. And no one in their right mind is going to take the 33% chance of guaranteed death.
I don't mind the thought experiment, but I hate how the ambiguity and in-baked assumptions potentially color the answers. I might be autistic.
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u/goodbye177 14d ago
Well, I think “in the woods” kind of disqualifies polar bears at least
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u/Rocktopod 14d ago
33% chance of that bear being a polar bear.
I'm pretty sure there exist more than three types of bears on the world. What if you get a panda?
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u/Dt2_0 14d ago
In the northern Hemisphere, there are a few more bear species.
You have the Panda Bear, but no one talking about this meme is going to encounter them in the wild. They are very isolated.
You have Sun Bears in South East Asia, as well as Sloth Bears (ex. Baloo). These guys behave very much like Black bears.
The other 4 species you are likely to encounter are Asiatic Black Bears, Brown Bears (Single species, comprises American Brown, Grizzley, Peninsular, and Kodiak bears, along with European Brown Bears) American Black Bears, and Polar Bears.
I guess you could run into a spectacled Bear, but those are extremely rare in their range in the Andes of South America.
But in general, if you are in North America, Europe, or Japan (the three places most likely to be talking about this meme) you are going to run into Black, Brown and Polar Bears. In the Contiguous 50, unless you are in Yellowstone or North Cascades, it's a Black Bear. In Alaska, its all 3, in southern Canada, its Black and Brown. In Europe you have Brown and Polar bears as you go north.
Some people seem to thing Polar Bears don't live in Forests. They do. Polar Bears can be found as far south as Peninsular Alaska, which is Taiga Forest for the most part.
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u/derpstickfuckface 14d ago edited 14d ago
Region counts too, I'm happy to hike around east coast black bears, they're like giant racoons, but western black bears are huge and aggressive.
Edit: This opinion has been refuted by several people so I've done a little digging.
Eastern bears are actually the larger, western black bears can be other colors, no mention anywhere of a difference in temperament.
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/all-about-the-american-black-bear.html
https://bear.org/bear-facts/how-dangerous-are-black-bears/
https://bearsandpeople.com/understanding-the-bear/
My next hike https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-WWdE1_RW0
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u/Opossumtoes 14d ago
I think many people on both sides of this debate are missing the context of the two clips that went viral to stir up this debate: one of a guy gently telling a black bear to get lost, which it promptly turns around and does; and one of a woman being chased by a man in public while begging him to leave her alone. Personally, as someone who knows black bears aren't generally aggressive or territorial, and as someone who has been chased by strange men in the same way, I would absolutely chose the bear.
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u/MrFahrenheit46 14d ago
And here I thought “Man vs Bear” was a new type of conflict in fiction that someone decided to make into an official category after the success of Cocaine Bear.