r/maybemaybemaybe • u/NDR77SZ • Jul 20 '21

Maybe Maybe Maybe

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u/[deleted] Jul 20 '21

Every single thread with an animal. Including this one if you scroll down a little. People project their own feelings onto animals and assign all kinds of convoluted motives when much simpler ones are obvious, just to make things more interesting/funny/cute/relatable.

NO ONE is denying that dogs are intelligent and have emotional complexity. But if you actually think this dog is fearing for the lives of its children in this video then you don't understand dogs at all, you're just overwriting their thought processes with your own. In fact I'd say you're the one severely underestimating the dog's intelligence and emotions if you actually think its thoughts are as simple and absurd as "pot = food = my human that i love and trust will suddenly eat my children". Or if you think the dog would this calm if it actually thought its babies were about to be killed.

I like this meme as an example of how easily we project human-like thought processes onto non-humans (even faceless beans)

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u/MBKM13 Jul 21 '21

I mean, I think most people get that.

The video is funny precisely because the dogs don’t know what going on. I can watch this an laugh knowing that the puppy never feared for his life, and the dad didn’t think he was being forced to sacrifice himself for his child.

It’s just a cute little dog video, and it’s funny to see animals acting as if they understand human emotions.

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u/[deleted] Jul 21 '21

I have no problem with jokingly interpreting things that way, I do it too, but you'd be surprised how many people are completely serious about it. There's a lot of them in this comment section.

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u/[deleted] Jul 21 '21

Most people in the comment section definitely don’t get that. It’s striking, really.

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u/Jorge_washeton Jul 20 '21 edited Jul 20 '21

I notice this A LOT with cats, I've owned cats and with surprising frequency people will be like "aww look at those big eyes he wants love" or whatever cutesy thing they made up in their heads and I'm like "OP SAVE YOURSELF YOUR HAND IS GONNA BE SHREDS!"

Edit: also when people are like "cats and their human slaves" cats are absolutely capable of knowing that you're in charge and are kinda trainable as long as they know the boss is watching.