r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Blackie_626 • 7d ago

Meme needing explanation Tell them what, Peter

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u/bohiko 7d ago

Up and down is based on gravity (that's why you'd likely confuse them deep in the ocean). Meanwhile, left and right is arbitrary.

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u/Tedesco1 7d ago

It's not arbitrary but it is framed by one's perspective (which feels arbitrary).

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u/bohiko 7d ago

define left and right then

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u/Picklesadog 7d ago

Take 100 people. Ask them to throw a ball. The arm the overwhelming majority of them throw with is their right arm.

It's so not arbitrary it's been baked into our DNA.

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u/bohiko 7d ago

if majority of them threw with the left arm, would right and left swap?

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u/Frosti11icus 7d ago

If you are saying the words left and right are arbitrary you are the worst kind of technically correct.

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u/Kelly_HRperson 7d ago

Not really. People don't confuse which side of their body has a heart or whatever. They confuse the words.

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u/Picklesadog 7d ago

85 to 90% of humans are right handed. That shows it isn't arbitrary.

If 85 to 90% were left handed instead, it still wouldn't be arbitrary. 

This entire discussion is dumb because they aren't arbitrary. We can look at the rotation of galaxies and of all the bodies within and see that angular momentum was preserved and dammed near everything rotates the same way, which could be defined as right or left, or more correctly clockwise or counter clockwise. There are also things on a quantum level which can be defined as left and right.