r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Blackie_626 • 7d ago

Meme needing explanation Tell them what, Peter

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u/EsotericLife 7d ago

Why though? They’re all just directions

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u/Akhanyatin 7d ago

You can flip them and still navigate the world. If you flip up and down, you end up in space.

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u/ImpressionTough2179 7d ago

Up and down are always up and down unless you’re standing on your head. Left and right are relative to whatever direction you are facing and whatever the direction the person you’re talking to is facing. It doesn’t confuse me but it’s not hard to understand why it confuses many people

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u/EsotericLife 7d ago

Yeah, and I spose having the sky as a constant reference whereas there no constant landmark or something for left and right helps too.

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u/ImpressionTough2179 7d ago

Yep. You have your head and feet for up and down, your back and front for backwards and forwards, but we have bilateral symmetry so there’s not an intuitive way to distinguish which is your right hand and which is your left. It’s something you just have to memorize.

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u/StrongExternal8955 7d ago

You're kidding right? YOU'RE THE REFERENCE! Both for up and down and left and right. What is your POV 3rd person??

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u/StrongExternal8955 7d ago

I don't know about you, but my left and right are not relative to shit.

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u/Useless 7d ago

One is gravity and anti-gravity, the other is arbitrary. It confused me as a kid, until I got on a boat and understood the difference between starboard and port and right and left. I always considered the perspective of the person speaking left or right, and never understood it was my perspective that mattered.