There are some animals where disgust or fear responses are probably to some extent hardwired in us, for example snakes. I love snakes and think they're adorable, and my brain is still highly sensitive to detecting snakes and seeing one pulls me totally out of whatever I was thinking about so I realize THAT'S A SNAKE!
Likewise with insects and other arthropods, some of them can harm you or spread disease, so it makes sense to be cautious about them and even to fear some of them. Some level of aversion to bugs is probably an adaptive thing that helped our ancestors avoid angry swarms of stinging insects and parasites like ticks.
However, regular everyday exposure to bugs, including positive or at least non-aversive experiences, would be needed to shape this instinctual fear into something that makes you appropriately vigilant about harmful bugs and able to distinguish them from bugs that won't hurt you.
My sister, who loves spiders and is a firm defender of spiders, frequently cites the fact that arachnophobia is most common in Britain, a place with no spiders hazardous to humans. The worldwide decline of insects means that many humans are getting less of that critical neutral-to-positive experience with insects that lets them be comfortable with bugs.
I see people in my notes constantly talking about how the sight or sound of a bug, any bug, immediately drives them into a terrified panic. This makes me sad for the people, and afraid for the bugs, because this kind of non-discriminatory fear probably couldn't develop in an environment that wasn't empty and devastated of life. Without the magical experiences of catching a firefly, letting a praying mantis crawl up your arm, putting crumbs from different foods down onto the sidewalk to see which ones the ants like best, or watching a spider spin her web, getting stung by a wasp will certainly be a powerful and formative trauma.
But there is another kind of distaste for wildlife I have seen, which is differentā a disdain or hatred for animals just because they are common and thrive among humans.
If city folk view deer as majestic and wondrous creatures, and country folk think they're stupid and annoying, then the city folk are right. For what it's worth, I am not a city folk and I was downright shocked to see someone say that deer are "stupid" and "basically rats" in rural areas. My dad was a hunter growing up and he impressed upon me very strongly that deer are majestic, intelligent animals worthy of awe and reverence.
Having grown up hearing about the rarity and precarious existence of precious endangered species, some humans have absorbed a framework of life on Earth where important, valuable animals are rare and live somewhere far away, and any animal that is abundant among humans is worthless vermin.
Particularly repulsive is when an animal lives in human environments and has its own needs, behaviors and agendas that don't treat humans as special exceptions to the law that we all live in an ecosystem.
Raccoons will eat your trash, because it's a source of food. Moles will dig burrows in your lawn, because that's their lifestyle. Squirrels will eat your bird seed, because their diet overlaps with that of birds. Coyotes will eat your outdoor cat because a coyote is a predator that eats small animals and a domesticated small animal is mostly dependent on humans to protect it from predators. That's a major reason to become domesticated, actually.
I have never had a goose be mean to me or bother me at all, but then again I have never chased or harassed a goose or otherwise intruded upon its personal space.
I think there is embarrassment about being awed and enchanted by animals. No one wants to be a "horse girl" that's cringe, so horses must be evolutionary mistakes and anxious couches with legs. No one wants to be the gawking city slicker staring at a common and everyday creature, so deer are idiots and vermin. No one wants to be taken as naive about the inconvenient or vexing attributes of animals, so it's better to treat any commonly-encountered animal with a mix of indifference and scorn. Only an idiot who's never met a skunk would think skunks are cute, right? You think wasps are important? Spoken like someone who's never been stung by a wasp! You want to defend spiders or snakes? You've probably never lived out in the country then. Insects are everywhere and annoying so who cares about bugs. Goats are mean and stinky.
So? You're mean and stinky too.
baratheonpilled
tangentwithtanner
dededos
andulkaphoto
discoholicmusic
origamiaround
vaporwave
pixelskylines
kaledo-art
