this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2026
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Science Memes

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[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 183 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Borders are trees covered in pee.

[–] notabot@piefed.social 52 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Sigh Unzip. If that's what I've got to do to carve out some space, then so be it!

[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 31 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Welcome to Border Peetrol.

[–] CobraCommander@quokk.au 9 points 2 months ago

Paw Peetrol

[–] DahGangalang@infosec.pub 8 points 2 months ago

Maintaining healthy trees with urine covering with federal employee benefits and a government pension sounds like a dream job.

No doubt they'd find a way to make it a bureaucratic nightmare of a job. But I'm down.

[–] itsaphoque@moist.catsweat.com 104 points 2 months ago (3 children)

"Sorry sir, we have to deport you back to your impoverished, war-torn country, because wolves pee on trees".

Very compelling.

[–] ignotum@lemmy.world 20 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's as good an excuse as any 🤷‍♂️

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[–] SuperPengato@scribe.disroot.org 15 points 2 months ago

Also, countries need authoritarian governments because lobsters pee on each-other's faces.

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[–] SpookyBogMonster@lemmy.ml 86 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

The modern notion of nation States, with clearly defined borders, and mechanisms of violence to enforce them, only arose around the 17th century.

Wolves don't build border walls, have customs checkpoints, or leave refugees to drown in the Mediterranean.

This isn't a "science meme", it's a falacious attempt to cloak reactionary rhetoric in the aesthetic garb of scientific rigor.

[–] IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 35 points 2 months ago

Might as well show plant tissues with defined cell walls and say "borders are natural".

[–] stickly@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Only a half truth. Borders may have been loosely defined but they were absolutely defended with violence. You couldn't wander in and hunt in your neighbors woods, take their timber or set up a farm too close. Hell, sometimes they even had well defined natural borders or walls (see: Hadrian's wall, the great wall of China)

Moving through an area in large numbers might draw a violent response and you might be coerced to leave if you spoke the wrong language or dressed the wrong way. If you were an unknown group of strangers they may well let your boat sink or leave you to starve outside their walls. Modern states have simply codified these reactions into law.

Proto-states and the associated mechanisms developed extremely quickly once sedentary agriculture became dominant. If your entire livelihood is tied to a field of grain you no longer get to run or hide from conflict; controlling who can and can't get near it becomes imperative.

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[–] too_high_for_this@lemmy.world 83 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I know it's just a shitpost but it's so fucking stupid.

It's comparing a home to a country. Like arguing "If you're so against borders, I'll just come into your house at any time." No, fuckface, there's a difference between personal space and (what should be) public land.

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[–] darthsundhaft@piefed.social 76 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Pretty sure their borders aren't made up of countries, taxes, and slavery.

[–] IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

and they aren't forcing other animals to comply and pay taxes for the maintenance of those borders

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[–] stray@pawb.social 45 points 2 months ago (1 children)

They overlap significantly. In addition to what's seen in the image, the wolves' territories will move around due to various conditions. There are no fixed lines that could be likened to states' borders, only vague areas that can be likened to respecting personal space. Compare the wolves' ranges with the white line indicating the national park border also seen in the image, which does not move around based on vibes.

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[–] luthis@lemmy.nz 36 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Animals are more civilised than Israelis it seems

[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 22 points 2 months ago

Not a hard bar to clear.

[–] Capable_Coping@piefed.social 34 points 2 months ago (4 children)

The top quote is refering to borders as a state construction. Nobody denies the existence of boundaries between things in general

those wolves don't cross borders those because they already have what they need, and avoid upsetting their neighbors. not because the other wolf built a fance and has an army that will kill him, and is forced to live in his territory and pay taxes so his territory can be protected ny an army that will kill any wolves that enter without permission.

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[–] LinkeSocke@feddit.org 29 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (18 children)

I must have totally forgotten that I'm a Wolf. I've always thought that I'm a Human. Crazy. Good to know that now. But I want that Friedrich Merz pisses on all of them trees at the German Border, because thats how the natural way to mark ur territory just works. And everything from nature is always the perfect and correct bahaivor for everyone!

[–] merdaverse@lemmy.zip 20 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Exactly. Wolves are also one of the species that practice infanticide. Clearly there is no point in being better, and we should just replicate everything we see in nature.

Whenever someone makes an appeal to nature, you know you're in for a treat.

[–] musubibreakfast@lemmy.world 15 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I pissed in my neighbor's garden, got his wife pregnant and then ripped apart his newborn with my bare teeth and now my neighbor just wanders in the communal parking lot. At first I felt like the bad guy but I feel a lot better now, because his wife snarls at him whenever he gets close to the house.

Sometimes life surprises you.

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[–] dragnucs@lemmy.ml 27 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Yes but humans are not wolfs. Each behave differently.

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 17 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Primates also have territories, and chimps, one of our closest relatives, have wars over them.

[–] jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

And they're so much smarter than us, we saw no reason to change such a winning strategy.

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[–] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 10 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

and bonobos, chimpanzee's closest relatives have found evolutionary strategies that work without wars. we have changed our ways of eating and living before, we can again. all we need, as a society, is the imagination to remake ourselves as we have before

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[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, humans are two wolves. Way different psychology.

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[–] PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S@anarchist.nexus 24 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Yeah but we're not wolves 😄🏴

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[–] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 22 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It really bothers me when people use "fear" and "respect" interchangeably. This borders on that.

[–] Alberat@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago

wrong, there are no borders... so this cant border on anything

[–] the_abecedarian@piefed.social 21 points 2 months ago (5 children)

those aren't borders, those are territories arrived at by wolves interacting with each other and deciding to keep the peace. has nothing to do with formal borders imposed on us by states

[–] krisevol@lemmus.org 34 points 2 months ago (3 children)

You just described a border.

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[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 28 points 2 months ago (10 children)

has nothing to do with formal borders imposed on us by states

You mean the entities who interact with each other and decide to keep the peace as an abstract representation of those residing within them?

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[–] Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net 21 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S@anarchist.nexus 12 points 2 months ago

I mean we're on Lemmy in /c/sciencememes, i.e. (pedantic fuckweasels)² 😆

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[–] chirayu_alias@lemmy.zip 20 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I love how people call it natural when anyone but a human does something.

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[–] theywilleatthestars@lemmy.world 20 points 2 months ago (6 children)

Ok, sounds like we don't have to put so much energy into policing them then.

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[–] ZoteTheMighty@lemmy.zip 20 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Am I allowed to immigrate across countries if I engage in a match of melee combat with the leader of said country and perform well? Murder optional.

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[–] troglodytis@lemmy.world 18 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I pee on things when I walk around the farm

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[–] F_State@midwest.social 17 points 2 months ago (8 children)

In that case, is it even a border if people aren't frequently peeing all along it?

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[–] blarghly@lemmy.world 16 points 2 months ago (1 children)
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[–] orioler25@lemmy.world 15 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Is this meant to be serious?

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[–] TheFonz@lemmy.world 15 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Cool, now overlap with the paths of migratory animals

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[–] felixwhynot@lemmy.world 15 points 2 months ago (6 children)

Are we just gonna ignore the parts where they cross over?

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[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I only respect borders marked with urine

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[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 2 months ago

Everybody is against borders until it is what they see as their land that is treaded on.

[–] Chee_Koala@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago (6 children)
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