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Loving Dogs Since 1999.

@flintstonesvitamins

Sera»20»California/Oregon. Hey everyone stay safe during this "presidency". Reach out to me if ya need it
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dimetrodone

People horrifically fucking up facts about evolution and genetics too support their stupid beliefs or to seem smart and “rational” is probably one of my big pet peeves 

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bogleech

Yeah. An enormous number of racists, misogynists, homophobes and transphobes I’ve met eventually whip out something about evolutionary biology and they never, ever, ever, ever have the slightest shadow of even a half-right idea what any of it means or ever cite a claim ever actually made by a scientific study.

Here’s a quick handy reference list or anyone who isn’t sure:

  • Homosexuality does exist in almost all social species.
  • “Alpha males” are not a real phenomenon and in fact the most aggressive males tend to be the least reproductively successful.
  • “Survival of the fittest” simply means that the success of a species hinges on how well it “fits” its environment. It does not mean that stronger or smarter individuals are supposed to succeed. Those things can even be a detriment in nature by wasting too many resources.
  • “Race” is not a biological concept. Someone who looks different from you has the same human genes, just a different grab-bag of dominant traits.
  • Evolution is not a march towards higher complexity, more intelligence or even more adaptability. It’s just a fluctuation of characteristics dictated by environmental pressures and mutation. A slime mold isn’t “less evolved” than a hawk, just adapted for success under different parameters.
  • People didn’t evolve “from apes.” It’s more complicated than that. We are a category of ape, sharing a common ancestor with the other apes.
  • No human on Earth is “closer” to an evolutionary ancestor than any other. We all descended from the same one.
  • Neanderthals were also a “sibling” species of ours. We didn’t evolve from them.
  • Some of us did, however, cross-breed with Neandethal man. It is exclusively non-African races, such as white people, who still carry hybrid human/Neanderthal genes. Whoops, sorry “white purity” skinheads, you’re actually mixed with a whole other species.

Some more stuff!

  • Humans are actually more genetically homogeneous than most people suspect. This is possibly due to a population bottleneck at some point in our evolutionary past. Two chimpanzees from different sides of a jungle are likely more genetically different to each other than any two human beings in the world.
  • Our big brains may help us use tools, but what was really principal in their development was the need for empathy, communication, and cooperation.
  • Humans. Are. Social. So social it drove an incredibly energetically costly increase in our brain size.  Don’t believe anyone who says its our nature to fight “every man for themself.” We’re humans, not bears. We fight for each other.
  • And we always have. Fossil remains are found of ancient humans who bore signs of crucial mobility impairments that lived to notable ages. Some even have sticks or other mobility aids – community care and support is our way. We don’t cast off those with impairments, we stand by them.
  • Human sexual dimorphism is on a decreasing trend. Our ancestors had greater difference in canine size and overall size. Our dimorphism gap has gotten smaller.
  • Occam’s razor is the principal that whatever is the simplest explanation is probably the most likely one. Don’t believe someone who says the reason we evolved bipedalism is so that males could carry gifts to females to woo them. Yes, this is a real ‘theory’ on how bipedalism evolved.
  • Skin tone is an adaptation of UV levels vs vitamin D levels. Both come from the sun. UV is harmful, so where sun is plentiful populations develop a darker skin tone for more protection. The skin needs sun to create vitamin D, so where sun is scarce, the skin tone lightens to allow more sun in. This is literally all it is.
  • Final thing: No one’s mind is really equipped to fully understand how long a billion years is, or a million, or even tens of thousands of years. Evolution takes place over a loooong time. Its very, very, slow, slower than we can really comprehend. We can’t “stand in the way” of natural selection by caring for our ill. We don’t need to “help” evolution in any way. It inevitably happens, but not on any sort of timescale we could possibly affect, so don’t fall for anyone that tells you not to “stand in the way” of natural selection. That’s fascism, and its utterly pseudo-scientific.
  • Not to mention natural selection doesn’t have a “will” that you can stand in the way of. Its not an entity with wants, its a millions-year long process. And its impossible for our decisions to “stand in its way.” Our decisions to care for one another are what brought our species where it is, plain and simple.

Evolution is literally genetic mutations that sometimes help with propagating our own genome. It’s just luck. Sometimes the mutation is helpful to the organism. Sometimes harmful. Sometimes neutral. It’s just random shit happening and if it was helpful enough ( to reproduction ) it becomes a widespread trait.

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"oh mein gott" destroyed germany, "woa mama mia cunt" destroyed italy, and "naur" destroyed australia. who is next?

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yogg-saron

my little brother came into my room and told me that there was water all over the bathroom floor so i got up and grabbed a towel and ran into the bathroom to find all of my water energy pokemon cards sprawled out on the floor this kid is 5 fucking years old and he got me

do you think this is a fucking game (because he does)

THIS POST IS TWO YEARS OLD NOW. MAX IS 7. IT DIES DOWN FOR LIKE HALF A YEAR AND THEN SUDDENLY IT KICKS BACK UP AGAIN I HATE THIS POST 

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wizardshark

this post is now 5 years old. Max is 10 and i hope he’s still schemin’

There’s so much potential in this genre of joke. “There’s a fire in the kitchen!” etc.

i find it so genuinely hilarious that my little brothers age is measurable on tumblr specifically by people who have seen this post. i moved out a while ago but i know that he would love how often his dorky ass joke gets passed around on here. thank you all very much.

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schmergo

Pitch: Muppet Lord of the Rings. Miss Piggy as Eowyn. Imagine her just throwing herself at a human man playing Aragorn. Imagine her defeating the Witch-King of Angmar by going “HI-YA!” and karate chopping him.

According to Tumblr Year In Review, this is my most impactful and popular post of 2021, so you’re welcome

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“How can one capture the pool of light in the courtyard, the golden windows, the strange long-ago look, the look that one sees in old paintings? I can only think of ‘the light of other days’, and I didn’t make that up…”

“I can sit alone by an open window for hours if I like, and hear only bird songs, and the rustle of leaves. The trees are pure gold and orange”

I have let tenderness in. Every night I am coming home to warm food and lamplight leaking out of the windows into the night, and tenderness is holding the door open.

Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle // Autumn de Wilde, Emma (2020) // Joni Mitchell and Graham Nash, Our House // Greta Gerwig, Little Women (2019) // Rainer Maria Rilke, The Bride // Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society // Virginia Woolf, Diary // Alice Macdonald, Window Shopping // oumaima, My Year of Practicing Tenderness // Caroline Walker, Birthday Party // Aspen Matis // My photo, probably Amsterdam (2019) // Marie Howe, What the Living Do

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