742
Borders (slrpnk.net)
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] nomen_dubium@startrek.website 2 points 6 days ago

wby always with the wolves?

[-] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 257 points 1 week ago

Borders are trees covered in pee.

[-] notabot@piefed.social 76 points 1 week ago

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

[-] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 51 points 1 week ago

Welcome to Border Peetrol.

[-] CobraCommander@quokk.au 17 points 1 week ago

Paw Peetrol

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] itsaphoque@moist.catsweat.com 154 points 1 week ago

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

Very compelling.

[-] ignotum@lemmy.world 35 points 1 week ago

It's as good an excuse as any ๐Ÿคทโ€โ™‚๏ธ

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] SuperPengato@scribe.disroot.org 23 points 1 week ago

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

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] SpookyBogMonster@lemmy.ml 109 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

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.

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

[-] stickly@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago

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.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] too_high_for_this@lemmy.world 106 points 1 week ago

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.

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] darthsundhaft@piefed.social 106 points 1 week ago

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

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

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[-] stray@pawb.social 64 points 1 week ago

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.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] luthis@lemmy.nz 60 points 1 week ago

Animals are more civilised than Israelis it seems

[-] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 39 points 1 week ago

Not a hard bar to clear.

[-] Capable_Coping@piefed.social 51 points 1 week ago

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.

load more comments (4 replies)
[-] PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S@anarchist.nexus 35 points 1 week ago

Yeah but we're not wolves ๐Ÿ˜„๐Ÿด

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] the_abecedarian@piefed.social 34 points 1 week ago

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 51 points 1 week ago

You just described a border.

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 40 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

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

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

load more comments (10 replies)
[-] Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net 30 points 1 week ago
[-] PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S@anarchist.nexus 20 points 1 week ago

I mean we're on Lemmy in /c/sciencememes, i.e. (pedantic fuckweasels)ยฒ ๐Ÿ˜†

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] LinkeSocke@feddit.org 32 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

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 23 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

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 17 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week 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.

load more comments (17 replies)
[-] dragnucs@lemmy.ml 30 points 1 week ago

Yes but humans are not wolfs. Each behave differently.

[-] village604@adultswim.fan 21 points 1 week ago

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

[-] jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago

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

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 12 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

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

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (6 replies)
[-] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 29 points 1 week ago

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

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] ZoteTheMighty@lemmy.zip 27 points 1 week ago

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.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] felixwhynot@lemmy.world 25 points 1 week ago

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

load more comments (6 replies)
[-] chirayu_alias@lemmy.zip 25 points 1 week ago

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

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] theywilleatthestars@lemmy.world 25 points 1 week ago

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

[-] Artisian@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

I imagine that the wolves put nonzero hours into it

[-] theywilleatthestars@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago
[-] Artisian@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

Yes (National park service, documenting the behaviors wolf packs take to avoid overlap, and the conflict that follows if they do)

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] troglodytis@lemmy.world 23 points 1 week ago

I pee on things when I walk around the farm

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] blarghly@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] TheFonz@lemmy.world 21 points 1 week ago

Cool, now overlap with the paths of migratory animals

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] orioler25@lemmy.world 21 points 1 week ago

Is this meant to be serious?

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] F_State@midwest.social 19 points 1 week ago

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

load more comments (7 replies)
[-] Chee_Koala@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago
[-] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

Wind blows, trees' branches rub together and snap off twigs growing at the ends, creating gaps. They grow again, next windy day, they break again.

load more comments (5 replies)
[-] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago

I only respect borders marked with urine

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Kwakigra@beehaw.org 12 points 1 week ago

This is actually fascinating because it demonstrates a social construct created by animals. Not all animals have the same intelligence, and in nature intelligence is typically found among animals living in groups. It requires intelligence to live and cooperate with others. To me it seems that these animals actually used their intelligence to preserve socially constructed zones for the general good of multiple groups of wolves, likely by staying where the right smell is and not going where the wrong smell is. Hopefully none of the wolves discover the prisoner's dilemma and become a wolf emperor by suddenly invading and enslaving their unprepared neighbors.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments
view more: next โ€บ
this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2026
742 points (88.7% liked)

Science Memes

20102 readers
2165 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS