this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2024
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Microblog Memes

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[โ€“] [email protected] 59 points 2 months ago (6 children)

If dog is not the opposite of cat, then why did everyone immediately know the answer is dog? Hmm ๐Ÿค”

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

I laughed like a little kid at this

[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I seem to remember a youtube video from years ago explaining how things can be opposites in different ways, like glue is the opposite of scissors because of the use, red is the opposite of blue because of what they represent, etc.

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (2 children)

The wiki article lists a few categories like gradable words that exist on a spectrum (hot/cold), complementary or binary pairs with no spectrum (entrance/exit, moral/immoral), and relational types that only make sense in a certain context (teacher/student).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opposite_%28semantics%29

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Now I think about it, I'd seen it on this comedy version of Dragon's Den with Andy Hamilton and Reginald D Hunter, but the real-world thing is probably more interesting!

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I've never thought this hard about this before and I'm finding myself suddenly glad that other people have. This is really neat.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Yeah, like think about opposite words that immediately come to mind for certain categories. If you think of the opposite of sweet, do you think sour, or maybe bitter? But in another context, the opposite of any taste is bland/tasteless. Same with emotions, where the opposite of love is commonly thought of as hate, but you could also say that any feeling has its opposite in indifference. Something can be sweet and sour, or you can have love and hate together, but you can't have a sweet bland thing, or a loving indifferent emotion.

Stuff like this interests me because it strikes at the heart of what we all take for granted in day to day thinking, but if you just slightly alter the lens you have something completely different and new.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Yeah, it's the opposite in different perspectives kind of. Totally agree.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago
[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I didn't. I was like huh there is no opposite of cat, then read the title, then got even more confused... How does anyone think the answer is dog?

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

In no logical way does cat being the opposite of dog make sense. It's just a typical association because there was always a stronger cat vs dog stereotype in media as I was growing up. I learned that cats and dogs don't get along, are mortal enemies, etc. This of course isn't true, but it's overly portrayed in media that way.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

huh, for me it only makes sense in the case of cat people vs dog people because they're the most popular pets and most people prefer one over the other

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

because it is. that's why cat people are the opposite of dog people.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Exactly. Cat people are rational and considerate of their neighbors.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

What's the opposite of possum people.

Because I want a pet possum.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago
[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Honey badger shadow beings.

edit 0: words

edit 1: that is an incredible band name

[โ€“] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

...when i was in second grade i wrote a book report on chocolate fever, in which the climax involved the protagonist taking vanilla pills, which were so obviously the opposite of chocolate to my eight-year-old perspective, but which no adults with whom i discussed the book found at all obvious...

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The adults were wrong. Vanilla is obviously the opposite of chocolate.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

And they go good together

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The opposite of cat is "inside-out cat".

[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

No, thats still a cat.

You're thinking of antimatter cats.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

antimatter cat is the only acceptable opposite of cat