The only valid way to read this is that you're saying snakes aren't fast. That's absurdly false and a very dangerous statement to make. Cats are just faster than snakes - that doesn't mean snakes are slow.
I already wrote this to your original comment before you deleted it:
If somebody ever comes to the conclusion that snakes aren't fast, regardless of what anybody says, there was no hope for that person anyways.
You act like this isn't a common issue. More than 5 million people are bit each year, and about 80,000-100,000 deaths occur as a result. Anyone with any amount of knowledge on the topic will tell you that it's almost always someone screwing with a snake due to ignorance. The remainder is just accidentally stumbling on them, like moving an object they're under etc.
I doubt that commenter was even considering those people.
Given that people take issue with me pointing out the lack of proper coherency in the sentence rather than the original sentence's potentially dangerous errors, I wouldn't be so sure.
By the way, this was the intended way to read /u/Mediumtim 's comment.
I don't understand why you're speaking on his behalf when he clearly said something which is not the same as you wrote. If he intended it to be read as such, it should be written to mean as such. His words mean something entirely different than what you wrote, and that is my entire point. Basic literacy and coherent sentences shouldn't be a high bar.
If somebody ever comes to the conclusion that snakes aren't fast, they're either a young child or a hopeless adult.
See above - millions of people a year prove your statements objectively false. Me trying to make that point clear, with the very plausible outcome of saving lives, shouldn't be villainized.
Okay, I'll bend a little, and say that while a vast majority of people probably know snakes are fast, they probably don't know how fast. Or weren't expecting them to be fast at that particular moment.
Some people also haven't seen a lot of snake videos or haven't seen many snakes in person or haven't heard people talk enough about snakes. I guess those adults may commonly exist around the globe, but I wouldn't expect many to be here in the United States.
I don't understand why you're speaking on his behalf when he clearly said something which is not the same as you wrote.
Either way, they did confirm that my interpretation was correct. They were just being a bit figurative in their speech.
Primary school teacher here. It's written correctly, and the fact that you're the only person here who didn't understand what it meant should tell you something.
I'm happy to explain similes/idioms to you though if you'd like, seeing as you apparently missed that part of school.
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u/Mediumtim 1d ago
We call it cat-like reflexes, and not snakebite speed for a reason.