Friday, Apr. 26, 2024 - 7:57 a.m.

I have a thing to say about the “who would you rather meet in the woods, a man or a bear?” hypothetical being discussed here and there. I’m the one with the unpopular answer so I’m going to put it here where I won’t be castigated for disagreeing. Because I'm not gonna die on this hill, but I will get up there and mutter obstinately.

I’ll take the man.
I think people are really underestimating how much it sucks to be mauled by a bear. I remember hearing a Fresh Air interview with someone involved in making that movie about the guy who lived in the wilderness for a time and then got eaten by a bear. The person had heard the tapes of the guy getting eaten by the bear, and it wasn’t… it wasn’t brief.

Moreover, pretty much EVERY bear you run into is going to want to do that to you, and every bear will be capable of it.

And yes, there’s a non-zero chance that the man could and would do worse, but there’s also a much larger chance that they wouldn’t. It’s the whole fallacy like why people worry disproportionately about terrorism than, say, getting mown down by a car. It’s emotionally charged. But I’ll take the man encounter. Yall can have the bear.

That’s all.

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