I don't use twitter or any politically fueled environments like that. So it's weird to me that I keep noticing this whole ongoing debate about BEARS from women.
The whole thing here is that women are choosing 'bear' over men, and then the men are arguing about how stupid it is. The women in return say 'you don't get it', and around it goes.
Tbh, I can't do enough mental gymnastics to see it as anything but dumb, or at best 'naive'. (My wife, thankfully, chose 'men', exasperated that it's even a question)
It screams of feminist city girls who have had zero exposure to nature, and a whole lot of exposure to night clubs, alcohol, and scummy drunk men.
The men all try mansplaining the statistical odds of coming across men compared to bears and all that but nobody is ever going to back down and be like 'oh yeah, I see your point'. In fact, I doubt that sentence has been uttered by anyone in at least 15-20 years.
But I do feel some kind of pity for the women choosing bears.
Some have probably had very real, horrible and traumatic experiences with men, and those who haven't have been surrounded by those who have, and those simply fearmongering that possibility like it's almost a guarantee the man is going to be a rapist.
It's gonna be meaningless bringing up statistics. I got bitten by a dog years ago, and even though I can clearly see how this labrador is the friendliest dog in the world, I can't help but instinctively hesitate ever since, before going in for a pet. And I adore dogs. Telling me it's safe isn't going to remove that hesitation from me.
But it's still kind of sad that women in the cities have been manipulated by a few scumbag men, and those fear-mongering city women to feel like most, or even all men, are not to be trusted.
The fact that 99.999% of encounters with men in the woods are realistically going to be 'y'alright?' or 'howdy', is seemingly lost on this debate as somehow irrelevant. It seems a woman's lack of exposure to pain, fear and suffering has made them learn through a kind of experience based on several degrees of separation, so much so that the very small chance of being raped is far, far worse than the almost 100% chance of being mauled and eaten.
I guess these women didn't read about that girl who got eaten by a bear over the course of an hour - kept alive so much that she called her mother to say goodbye because she was currently being eaten alive.
But they undoubtedly watched the bear videos on Instagram where they're rummaging for trash and some Canadian politely asks it to leave, or panda bears rolling around in a zoo.
It feels a bit like if you were brought up never knowing fire, but you see it on TV in all the movies. You'd think fire is inherently explosive and uncontrollably chaotic, unpredictable, and you'd start feeling terrified at the very idea of living in a house with even an ounce of wood or any connection to electricity or gas.
I think people just need to experience life a bit more. We're all so coddled and sheltered from reality that we not only get warped views on reality like preferring a bear to a human, but we will die on that hill before backing down and seeing sense, with a whole army of reaffirming people all over the world backing you up, no matter how messed up your opinion is. There's a pool o f 9 billion people, of course there will be a sizeable group to support you.
When we have face-to-face arguments or debates, backing down becomes a whole lot more likely. Compromise is almost guaranteed - Especially among men, who have that kind of underlying implication that if you don't back down, somebody is going to get a fist in their face and a broken leg.
If we have exposure to tigers in Thailand, doped up and barely conscious, de-clawed and chained up, we're not going to feel the same reality as somebody getting dragged away by a hungry wild tiger (or fine, lion)
Our lack of fear is a real problem. There's almost an infinite supply of videos of people trying to take selfies with various wild animals, from moose to snapping turtles, and ending up well and truly gouged, hospitalised, or buried.
That fear gives nature its much earned respect. In turn, it gives us civilised humans gratitude that the vast majority of us aren't going around eating each other.
Right now, men and women all over the world are increasingly becoming enemies with each other. As politics invades every space and discussion now, even our sex has been divided by political lines.
That's just sad, and it's having devastating consequences.
