Some of the many articles about it:
The notion that wolves fight amongst each other and the strongest becomes the “alpha” and the weakest is the “omega” and all that, is a misconception that has been debunked ages ago, and even the author of the study who called them “alphas” in the first place is pleading with his old publisher to stop printing the dang book already so this misconception can finally die out.
Wolf packs are more or less just families. One “breeding pair” and their pups, which often stay with their parents way into adulthood.
Considering the original study only documented Wolves in captivity I explain it like this: Alpha, Beta, Sigma, whatever, is just the type of prison bitch you’d be, so congrats.
Exactly this. Put any one species into a tiny depressing enclosure with way too many strangers and way too little food, and they will fight and establish a pecking order eventually. This has nothing to do with how the same species would behave in the wild and with enough resources to live comfortably, and the author realized that mistake years ago and is since trying to correct it.
But I guess the entire “alpha male” thing is just too popular with certain people … ahem.
I chuckle inside and exit the room at the first chance when someone non-jokingly refers to themselves as an alpha male. And that’s not because I’m afraid of them–the fact is that I’m the alpha male.
/s
Humans in packed cities could be described in a similar way though, if there’s not a social reinforcement in place, by the community elders who are respected and followed, to keep them from it. I live in a medium sized city now because of work, but even still I can relate to the rats [I’m aware of the studies flaws].
Put any one species into a [packed] depressing [space] with way too many strangers and way too [varied amounts of resources per individual], and they will fight and establish a pecking order eventually. This has nothing to do with how the same species would behave in the wild and with enough resources to live comfortably.
I grew up in the country with tens of acres and my nearest neighbor was a mile away. Separated from the small town nearby by a river and surrounded by thick hedgerows going miles around in every direction, with a huge open space (fields) between our house and the hedgerows. I’ve never been happy in the city. No matter where I am, I feel like I’m in a cage. I’m not agoraphobic but there’s a sense of being ‘watched’ when I leave my house that just isn’t there when you live in a remote area. All the people, sights, sounds, smells can be incredibly overwhelming at times.
I am only capable of attaining a true level of peace when I’m in nature.
yeah no this is a bad take, humans are arguably the single most social species on earth and cities are where almost everyone lives for a damn good reason.
It’s not healthy for most people to live isolated in the countryside, we need a community to maintain mental health.
You’re looking at it very black and white, as if you can’t live in a peaceful more remote area but still visit with friends and have them over, socialize at work, etc. After all, if you live in a city you don’t live with or talk to all the people you see, they’re just there, noise in the background.
Whether or not it’s a real concept doesn’t matter to these people, all that matters is whether it appeals to their pre conceived notions or not.
Also a great argument for the fact that caging humans doesn’t change anything in a positive direction. Especially when you enslave them too like in countries with barbaric penal systems such as the US.
The sad part is that a no small amount of prisons (especially “for profit” prisons) don’t have the end goal of rehabiliting the inmates in the first place. It’s all about cheap labor. They don’t want to change anything into a positive direction.
Reminder that only 8% of USA prisons are for-profit (I.e. private prisons).
Also a reminder that 2 out of every 3 workers in state and federal prisons still have jobs creating for-profit things.
8% is still too high. No one should profit from people being imprisoned.
Funny that pecking order is something you see in chickens. So these human alpha males are copying hen behavior.
What is life but just a series of prisons?
Alpha: Incomplete, generally unstable and full of errors.
Also, not fit for public consumption
Username checks out
I don’t see how it relates in this context but yeah, it actually does lol.
Other than the historical meanings, viking is also a colloquial term for all people who live in Scandinavia, which I do. Add that I’m a far left pacifist and you have a Viking Hippie 🤷
In other related news, the makers of these shirts watched their stock prices plummet today:
I’m not sure ‘alphas’ are the target market for this shirt.
Actually, I’d love to see this shirt on self-proclaimed alphas. Would be so… badass…
Alphas?
The magic of Three Wolf Moon exists on an entirely different plane than anything else wolf related. Those wolves are no longer a one-man wolfpack.
I’m gonna hodl.
moass incoming. Shorts are scared. Shorty burns.
Why am I down 99 percent?
Ironically its that they don’t have “alphas” in the wild because they just separate and leave each other alone…
For humans in school, prisons, and even just work environments we’re a lot more like captive wolves than wild
This terminology arose from research done on captive wolf packs in the mid-20th century—but captive packs are nothing like wild ones, Mech says. When keeping wolves in captivity, humans typically throw together adult animals with no shared kinship. In these cases, a dominance hierarchy arises, Mech adds, but it’s the animal equivalent of what might happen in a human prison, not the way wolves behave when they are left to their own devices.
That being said, any person describing themselves as an alpha is usually a big piece of shit.
Personally, I like the “alpha as in new software” approach: Alpha version = unstable, missing important features, filled with flaws, prone to breakdown and not fit for the public.
That’s pretty accurate
I can see myself coming up to a Alfa dude and say "are you Alfa Wolf as in a wolf stuck in captivity or Alfa Wolf as in the first and incomplete version of a wolf
Oh I’m definitely stealing this my dear. That’s gold
I actually met and interviewed Mech some years ago while working on a story regarding wolves in Oregon. He was a kind and very approachable person.
Fun fact; his name is pronounced “Meech,” not “mech” as in “mechanic.”
Just like the vaccines cause autism study, this won’t ever die out. People only ever remember the original.
People only ever remember the original.
And only partially so. Conveniently, they forget the part where, IIRC, guy was just trying to promote his own vaccine
Ironic. It wasn’t his own vaccine. It was two vaccines that he held stock in.
His name was on the patent. There was a second name on it as well, and that guy was someone whom the first cited. This second guy lost his license two years before publishing his paper, that the infamous one cited.
All of you are wrong.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Wakefield?wprov=sfti1
He had a bad study linking autism to certain vaccines and wanted to sell test kits.
Deer had “produced documentary evidence that Wakefield applied for a patent on a single-jab measles vaccine before his campaign against the MMR vaccine, raising questions about his motives”.
He both wanted to sell test kits and have his own vaccine.
You’re the most wrong lol.
He put out the study stating a link between the MMR vaccine and bowel disorders. Further stated that autism was caused by bowel disorders.
He advocated people to take the seperate vaccines not not the single MMR vaccine. At the time of the study he was developing his own vaccine and had a stake in another, meaning his study had a strong monetary motive.
He would become and anti-vax hero even though he wanted people to take more vaccines, not none.
Yeah, I tried explaining this to a “dog person” and they wanted no part of it. It was like telling a child Santa Claus wasn’t real or something
also the microwave study, learned about that one from my sister.
And just like marijuana leads to heroin.
MSG = cancer
A lot of guys have started calling themselves sigma males, but i just approach them and tell them I’m a Smegma male which is over a sigma male. 😤 these are facts that cannot be disputed.
Me? I’m a Ligma male.
Me? I’m more of a π-male myself
Oh yeah? I’ll bet you use USPS like a schmuck. Your “package” “came” in the “mail” 😤 I think not.
Ligma nuts.
Got em
Would you like cheese on that?
🧀 🍆
They’re just jealous because Smegma males come with built in flavor enhancers. Women crave for our taste and scent. 😤💪🏼
As I’m from Brazil, I proud myself in being lambda (the spelling is very close to “lambida”, or “a lick”)
Try telling Andrew Taint this
I tried, but I don’t know the address to the prison he’s in.
…so he can have a total meltdown over an internet stranger again? =P
These days, the only people still using this debunked wolf talk are douchebros, chuds, & incels.
And femcels
There’s no shortage of well meaning dog owners who don’t know any better.
Indeed. There are many still who are making big bucks on this misconception. The worst offender in my opinion is “The dog whisperer”, who is likely the worst well known dog trainer, and has done (and still does) a lot of damage. The whole basis for his school of thought is based on this alpha/beta/omega hierarchy.
I only watched his show once and it was so clear that he was abusive that I couldn’t even watch the whole episode. Just disgusting.
Cesar Melignant
Alpha hyenas, however, those are definitely real. But they’re boss babes so the PUAs can’t work with that
Alpha dommy mommies
we all really do watch the same exact things on youtube dont we
I’m pretty sure Moon Moon is an alpha version wolf.
LIES, EVERYONE KNOWS I’M THE ALPHA AWOOOOOO 🐺🐺🐺
They’re called High Value Wolves these days.
Women: Get some minute fraction of some sort of competitive advantage against men, in a single arena, when the OnlyFans "revolution" happened
Men: I’m suddenly a “high value male” ! Who is probably broke af
- a man
At least it helps point out the awful people who use the terms “Alpha” and “Beta” unironically to describe people.
Wolves are also scavengers and would gladly eat rotten corpses, trash and literal shit (just like dogs).
I mean if you believed that shit in the first place you’re probably not going to believe this post eh
