[NB: This is a repost of a thread containing undescribed screenshots (of a post from non-Tumblr blog The Way of Cats), in which the quoted material has instead been restored to its original, text-based format.]

brxsm:

Do cats feel superior to us? Some people don’t like cats for one simple reason. They have told me, “Cats think they are better than me.” I find this kind of attitude to be quite the mental leap. […] What I think such people mean is: Cats are not servile. This is true. Cats are not automatically placing themselves in an inferior position. They do not like to ask for something from a place of low power. But this does not mean cats automatically place themselves in a superior position, either. […] What these cat complaints do not acknowledge is that there is middle ground; that cats do not want to be our boss, and they also do not want to be our servant. Cats want to be our friends. I don’t know of any other pet with such an amazing capability to meet us as equals, despite the vast difference in our sizes, skills, and interests. Cats respond to kindness, they have a sense of fair play, and they can find themselves compelled to look after us when it is obvious we need it. Does that make them superior to some people? Yes, it does. But that’s not the cat’s fault. [Source]

elodieunderglass:

Oh this is actually how I feel about swans/geese. People think it’s amusing to go on about how these birds are EVIL AND CHAOTIC AND THE SPAWN OF SATAN and make jokes and memes about it, but it’s only revealing that most people have no idea what to do about an animal that doesn’t submit. Most wild animals run away from us, but swans sit in our parks and look us in the eye, and communicate clear boundaries and behavioral expectations, and that’s EVIL AND VIOLENT. They’re VIOLENCE LOVING ANIMALS WHO WANT TO EAT YOUR FACE. Because they don’t fawn or flee. They expect you to behave like an intelligent adult of their own species. They meet us as equals. We believe WE own that piece of land, and that swans or geese should submit; just as firmly do they believe that THEY own it, and tolerate us with about as much patience as we show them. And that is how “They won’t run away OR let me pet them” and “they hold us to their standard of behavior” makes animals evil, a word implying the moral choice to do harm. And in this, our normalised reaction to swans and geese (and cats), we can see that no, most of us aren’t ready to meet aliens yet.

sixth-light:

It occurs that many people also respond exactly like this to other humans who are from groups that they expect to be servile to them (children or people younger than them/perceived as younger than them, women and people they perceive as women, people of specific ethnic backgrounds in specific contexts, people of different class backgrounds) asserting their own existence as independent beings.