Comment on Bird

fedditter@feddit.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

• ricecake@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  People normally feed ducks food like bread. The woman was used to this, so she was startled to see someone feeding ducks birdseed.
  We’re used to birdseed being used to feed songbirds or the various tree birds.
  When the woman was directly informed that ducks are birds she was directly confronted with the knowledge that we put waterfowl in a different mental category than arboreal birds.
  It’s easy to imagine the feeling of realizing you’ve had a very basic, totally benign blindspot in how you conceptualize something as simple as ducks, and the woman’s reaction captures that deep feeling of “now that you say it it’s obvious” that a lot of people have felt. Knowing the feeling, it being slightly uncomfortable but harmless, and the general whimsy of ducks makes it funny.

  It’s funny because feeling empathy for silly mistakes makes us laugh.

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  • Brainsploosh@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Wow, this is an exemplary explanation. Being clear with several levels of cultural knowledge as well as the emotional load behind several meanings and juxtapositions, and still comes across with the humor unscathed.

    I dream to one day attain such mastery.

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    • grue@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Username checks out.

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    • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Respect for you taking the time to post this thoughtful praise in lieu of a gold badge. You may not yet be a ricecake, but you’re getting there!

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    • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Fellow autist here, though I don’t think I have adhd:

      I was once where you are now.

      It can be done.

      Entirely unironically:

      Believe in yourself, don’t let the haters get you down, … and as Johnny Cash once said, “know when to walk away, know when to run.”

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  • Snailpope@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Your systematic analysis engaged my chuckle reaction. Thank you and have a good day

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  • Eiri@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I’ll be honest I personally assumed ducks only ate fish.

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    • Shareni@programming.dev ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Wrong shaped beak for that, shovel instead of spear

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      • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Shovels work fine for itty-bitty fishes, since there’s a lid to keep them from splashing out. Also water bugs as well as of course plants.

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      • Genius@lemmy.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Pelican.

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    • grue@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      “Duckweed” is named such because ducks like to eat it. I believe aquatic plants like that are a pretty big part of their diet.

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  • codexarcanum@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    And now folks, realize that this is true of every single thing that humans think about.

    You put a duck and a sparrow side by side and maybe it seems obvious that, while not the same, these two things have something deeply in common. But most people have never considered them in one thought. When you get into abstract ideas like “freedom” or “socialism” is it any surprise that most people can’t even recognize them, let alone agree on any commonalities?

    You spend all day arranging dogs next to bears going “do you see how these are both canine-form mammals?” and the public is watching a tiktok while dismissing you going “Uh bears aren’t pets, what a dumbass!”

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    • MDCCCLV@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Honestly it’s more relevant to classify them by beak shape. Birds are 100% based on their beak shape, because that determines what they can and can’t eat.

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      • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        This generally works for teeth as well, the shape of teeth shows what kind of food an animal eats. Carnivores have sharp pointy teeth and generally big canines, herbivores have big flat molars and flat incisors, and where something falls between these extremes indicates what their diet probably is.

        For example bears and humans are both omnivores, but bears have muuuuch larger canines while ours are… maybe useful for gnawing off a small tendon i guess?
        And lo and behold bears are carnivores that eat a lot of non-meat things, while humans are primarily foragers who’ll eat meat when we make prosthetic canines to hold in our hands :^)

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  • fedditter@feddit.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Damn. Thank you so much!

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• AbsolutelyNotAVelociraptor@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Woman just realized for the first time that ducks eating bird seeds were, in fact, birds.

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  • adry@piefed.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    (Can I patronize? should be funny to point out that) ackshually, ducks are birds regardless of what they're eating. Like, at all times. Same happens with Penguins, Ostrich, and... Mmm.. other birds :P

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    • Schmuppes@lemmy.today ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Nobody said that the act of eating birdseed was the thing that makes the ducks birds.

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      • zqwzzle@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        JavaScript devs learning python: is this duck typing?

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      • adry@piefed.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        I know... yet,

        ducks eating birdseed were, in fact, birds.

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      • null@lemmy.nullspace.lol ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Yeah but nobody also didn’t explicitly not say it.

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      • BlackVenom@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Thank God, right?

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    • WanderingThoughts@europe.pub ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Technically ducks and velociraptors are both dinosaurs, regardless of what they eat.

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      • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        what if the duck eats the velociraptor?

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  • TheFogan@programming.dev ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I mean, you gotta admit the differences is something that varies, especially just on size and build. If I saw a guy offering fancy feast to a tiger, I’d probably also question it.

    Also would say, this could be the best scene ever in a Jurrasic Park movie. Trex is charging in… a kid just drops birdseed on the ground, T-Rex stops and begins eating… Palientologist asks kid “how the heck did you know that would work”, Kid “Bird!”.

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