110%

True, but that bleeds into all sorts of messy edge questions and theoreticals. I think it’s safe to hypothesize for now through with what’s available for anecdotal evidence and observed studies that they do recognize us and potentially some other large animals as some form of living mass/creature and not just a wall.

I would legit love if this was how fishing was

Jumping spiders at the very least do. It’s likely even more do as well.

https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.3001172

It very clearly a pup hood on a human.

I think I might’ve come across incorrectly when I said cultural decay. I mean to convey the consequences of a cultures effect on politics. For example wars, pollution, or nuclear weapons. I think you’d have trouble denying those have effects that are inherently social and require civic cooperation to prevent. Doing otherwise seems to me to actually objectively be a problem, assuming you value living. That’s actually what I meant about laziness as well, that we’re less invested in the core responsibilities that now exist with how advanced our technology and societies have become.

I agree you can’t force anyone, that’s not freedom, but I also feel and fear we may be past the point where inspiration can handle the challenges. FDR never had nuclear war looming, the interconnected and chaotic nature of social media to contend with, or a bevy of other modern factors like llms that I get the gut feeling are insurmontable. I’d like to be convinced otherwise instead of subscribing to apathy but I feel like I’m living through the dawn of a new age.

Not saying this is the correct route, but I do see the cultural decay, foreign influence, and complete lack of civic duty causing massive political failures in the US in real-time as we grow lazier, less interested, and more content. Any idea how we account for that in a reasonable fashion?

Yeah… That type of brainwashing is so commonplace now though. Just look at how the US is treating striking dock workers, people keep talking about how they make xxx,xxx and not how the ceos make xxx,xxx,xxx,xxx like it’s the workers being greedy… 🥲