Imagine I’m in the woods, and there’s a bear charging at me, clearly wanting to eat my face. Should my top priority be to listen to the bear and figure out why it feels this way?

That’s the advice I’m getting from those on the forest’s edge. They say, “This bear, which is eager to eat your face, is misinterpreted. You need to understand it and find out what you did to provoke its anger.”

To which I reply, “Okay… but it’s still the bear that’s after my face, not me after its. And I’m quite sure that no amount of understanding will change that.”

A bear intent on eating my face, and you expect me to reason with it?

This bear has been very open about its feelings towards me and others. It has expressed years of anger and fear toward anything different, almost like another bear is telling it, “YOU ARE THE VICTIM!” I once spotted it wearing a “F— Your Feelings” T-shirt, which was surprising because I didn’t know bears could wear clothes or comprehend insults.

There have been plenty of surprises lately.

I’ve even seen this bear with others, endorsing the idea of confining other beings—which seems rather uncharacteristic for a bear.

‘No, no,’ they insist. ‘We need to understand this angry bear!’

Given all of this, why are my so-called friends urging me to make peace with a bear determined to eat my face? What exactly can I do? Should I ask it how it feels? Dive deep into its psyche to figure out why it seems set on attacking me?

Based on its recent actions, it’s clear that this bear isn’t exactly operating with logic right now; it’s all primal instinct, no rational thought.

I’ve encountered this bear before. Initially, I tried to understand it as people urged, which resulted in me getting my face nearly eaten off.

An elderly man once managed to scare the bear away. But that didn’t last.

The second instance saw a kind older man successfully frighten the bear off. Interestingly, at that moment, nobody was asking that bear to reach out to me, or to anyone else, or even to the old man who got rid of it.

In fact, the day it decides to attempt understanding me or those who think differently from it will be the first such occasion.

While the older man stood guard, the bear remained angry and on the lookout for faces to consume. Strangely, people treated this bear with facial predation as if it was just another normal bear, as if its anger and aggression were not concerning at all.

Oops. It turns out this angry bear has some skill in manipulating people.

I can engage with the bear, but it will likely still want to eat me

No, thank you. This bear has been angry for a long time—prior to its first attempt to eat my face, after that, during the time the old man scared it away, and now that it has driven the old man off, it’s still plenty angry.

There doesn’t seem to be much of an in-between option when it comes to bears: it’s either “I’d prefer not to be eaten” or “I’m totally open to becoming a meal.” I’m definitely not going to extend my hand for a bite.

And I certainly won’t run away. Running from a bear is never a good idea.

If you encounter a bear, make lots of noise and stand firm

Instead, I’ll take the advice of park rangers: stay put and make a lot of noise.

There’s a chance the bear could still attack me. However, I don’t need to figure out why it’s behaving this way or contemplate how I might have offended it by… well, perhaps just acknowledging that things are different now.

Some folks believe there’s more to the bear’s aggression than just a desire for my face. I think that’s giving the bear too much credit.