“Sharks are dull and vapid animals that, if they didn’t bite people, there wouldn’t be any attention on them; they think with their mouths, they do not think with their brains.”
It is tough to comprehend the fear that the word sharks still instill in people and the level of ignorance (from Latin not to know, to be unacquainted; mistake, misunderstand) that surrounds them.
I read the sentence in a Tweet no more than a month ago; I attempted to explain how there are so many different sharks species and intelligent creatures with memory retention; the reaction was to block me.
It was an inexorable reaction to the possibility that the person’s knowledge about sharks was incorrect.
Sharks start with a noticeable disadvantage already in their name.