Dare I ask what the man vs bear meme is all about and why it seems to be upsetting men so much? [CW: sexism]
I don't go on social media so I don't really get it but I have seen memes here and there of women getting mauled by bears presented in a "heh, serves her right" kind of way.
So weird that dudes complain that they can't get women when the message they put out there is they hate women and make images of them being brutally mauled.
EDIT: I did not expect to see people I trust minimise SA here. I'm disappointed, that's something I expect from a random chud blowing in from another instance, not you guys. Most of you were extremely cool in your answers, but to the one or two that weren't. Do fucking better.
Screaming at Americans who feel the need to assert their masculine prowess by carrying a giant gun everywhere in the back country to stop being a stupid ass and get some bear spray is one of my maladaptive hobbies. Like bro you're not at the north pole or salmon fishing in the Alaskan interior. You're in Wyoming. Put the giant six shooter away and get something that actually works in the very rare case that you're charged by a bear. And they always want to take the dumbest guns. If you're worried about defense from bears you should have a semi-automatic shotgun loaded with magnum slugs. That's it. No rifles, certainly no pistols. In the extremely unlikely case that you're actually attacked by a bear you're going to be charged by a bear you probably didn't see, the bear is going to be running at you at thirty miles an hour, and it's going to be probably 100 feet away. You're not going to get a second shot with your dorky giant revolver, you're not going to drop it with your tacticool rifle. Assuming you can even get the gun on target in time, which is unlikely, and that you can hit a moving target, which is also unlikely, you've got a window of a very few seconds to put enough slugs in the bear to kill or incapacitate it.
And sometimes, that's something you should consider. If you're salmon fishing someone in the party should have a real big gun in case things go south. You almost certainly won't need to shoot the bear, but sometimes yelling "hey bear!" And throwing rocks isn't enough to dissuade a bold yearling and you might want to add some warning shots to keep it at a healthy distance.
But in any case where you don't havea hundred pounds of delicious fish that you refuse to share you're almost certainly better off using bear spray to make everyone in front of you miserable instead of trying to land enough shots in a very fast moving animal who just erupted out of the undergrowth to actually stop it.
Plus, like, lets be real - almost all charges are bluff charges so your party can just stand there, hold your arms up, and yell "hey bear" until the bear decies you're not worth the trouble and ambles away.
Idk, this is a huge pet peeve. Bear safety rant mode off.
Yeah, it's very frustrating. Like bro, drop the pretense, you're not going to get your big iron out of it's holster, on target, and get one shot off before the bear knocks you down, sniffs you, determines you're not a threat, and ambles away to go do bear things.
The bear is confused because they think it's very clear they would win in a fight effortlessly and is wondering why this guy is picking a fight he'll lose anyway