Baby female chimps prefer to play with dolls. As the commenters note, it takes a peculiar kind of obdurate academic idiocy to be surprised at this.
7 thoughts on “So Much For The Socialization Theory”
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Baby female chimps prefer to play with dolls. As the commenters note, it takes a peculiar kind of obdurate academic idiocy to be surprised at this.
Comments are closed.
I once heard a phrase which I liked so much I stole: “some ideas are so sand-poundingly stupid that only an academic could believe them.”
In the real world outsite the hallowed halls of academia and government, bad ideas (that is, ideas that don’t work) are generally discarded in favor of good ones (that is, ideas that do work).
In academia, bad ideas can get you tenure.
I’m actually somewhat surprised that the “finding” was published at all.
George Orwell is supposed to have said:
“There are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could believe in them.”
I’ve found it at a number of places on the internet, but none of them are sourced.
I don’t recall the details, but I once read that being wary of anthropocentric bias was a good idea in the past, but not anymore. The reason is that we now know so much about the workings of our bodies and minds and our evolutionary history that we have to conclude that we are just another species of animal. Consequently the basic assumption must be that much that goes on in an animal’s mind is very similar to what goes in our own minds.
I vaguely remember an old Mad magazine cartoon.
First frame: boy wields toy gun, yelling “Bang, bang, bang.”
Second frame: mommy gives him a doll to play with, hoping the nrew toy will curb his aggressive instincts.
Third panel – you know what’s coming: boy wields doll, yelling “Bang, bang, bang.”
One Christmas, a very progressive couple gives their precious little daughter some dump-trucks to prove how progressive they are. The daughter unwraps them, thanks her parents and takes them to her room to play with. Pleased with themselves, progressive mom and progressive dad settle in to enjoy their progressive Christmas with the rest of the family.
About an hour goes by, and progressive mom decides to check on her daughter, who’s been in her room all this time and very, very quiet. She opens the door and is quickly sushed by her daughter. Progressive mom asks what’s up, and daughter says, “They’re sleeping!” Progressive mom then walks into the room, and to her utter shock and dismay, daughter has tucked-in all the dump-trucks.
True story.
The Orwell quote that I’ve heard and read is, “There are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them.”
I don’t know the source of the quote. Orwell wrote more than “Animal Farm” and “1984” so it could’ve been from an article. Regardless of the source, it is a true statement.
The Pleistocene Liberation Organization (my pet name for enviro-whackjobs) might object to the dump trucks – burns fossil fuels AND wrecks natural landscapes to boot.