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Carnegiejy t1_ix1yafr wrote

There is an island in the Mississippi called Cat Island. When the French first charted it had a huge raccoon population but the French just assumed they were weird looking cats.

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DrifterInKorea t1_ix221on wrote

Can confirn. I am French and I still think they are weird looking cats.

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CarelessHisser t1_ix2gngu wrote

And thus the phrase:

"There's more than one way to skin a cat"

because early settlers thought things like raccoons were cats.

Our ancestors were not nearly as clever as we give them credit when it came to classification of organisms. Especially given how long beavers and capibara were considered fish.

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Arcane_Opossum t1_ix2jhwl wrote

That's more of a Catholic loophole. If anything it proves they were clever.

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semiomni t1_ix2oyu6 wrote

Does it? Like how is the loophole "clever"? Just seems like one of their arbitrary rules became inconvenient, so they arbitrarily changed it.

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Banjo_Pobblebonk t1_ix2s0m7 wrote

To be fair, it wasn't all Catholics collectively writing these rules. Popes, cardinals and the likes wrote up all the weird religious beurocracy so bored monks with too much time on their hands came up with loopholes to make living in a monastery more bearable. Too many fish days? Beavers and ducks are fish now. Meals must be eaten in silence? Talk in sign language. And do all this while hammered constantly on home brewed mead.

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semiomni t1_ix2slwx wrote

Sure there were reasons and background for why it played out that way.

Just saying "clever" does not really enter into it.

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KmartQuality t1_ix4t6jm wrote

You described a loophole.

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semiomni t1_ix4to66 wrote

?

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KmartQuality t1_ix4xz5n wrote

No, that's a question mark

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semiomni t1_ix4y8aw wrote

OK I'll be more clear, what is it you think you're contributing here?

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KmartQuality t1_ix4yd4f wrote

We're narrowing down what a loophole is. There seems to be confusion.

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semiomni t1_ix50o7l wrote

>There seems to be confusion.

Confusion seems to be entirely on your end.

For one, you just replied to yourself, not me.

Two, the conversation was not about the definition of loopholes, pretty clear to everyone else, how embarrassing for you.

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KmartQuality t1_ix5fzv7 wrote

You are too easy to drag into the internet mud. It's dirty and slippery in here. Do you like it? You can leave anytime

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semiomni t1_ix5p54d wrote

Pretending you were trolling all along to cover for your obvious misunderstanding.

Glass is less transparent.

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SJHillman t1_ix3stni wrote

>Especially given how long beavers and capibara were considered fish.

Thats not because they thought they were actually fish though, anymore than how bees are considered fish under one particular section of California fish and game law. It's just shoehorning one thing under a different category for a specific purpose and having people on the Internet not understand why because they don't bother to umtry to understand how it got to be that way.

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thorpie88 t1_ix2fv7o wrote

Australia has Rottnest island because the Dutch thought the Quokkas were rats

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Comnena t1_ix39qy7 wrote

Interesting, as the British called Quokkas native cats!

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