this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2025
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I always dislike this story because of the biological essentialism it implies and that allows racists and sexists to use it.
Do you also dislike stories with talking animals because animals can't talk?
It's a parable, and you seem to be taking it too literally and simultaneously not literally enough.
On the one hand, it's saying not to trust people who want to hurt you even if your interests are aligned. The soviets trusting the Nazis not to attack them just because they both gained by dividing eastern Europe and not fighting a war on multiple fronts. No amount of shared interest will keep a fascist from hating a communist.
On the other hand, you actually really shouldn't put scorpions on your back. It's actually fine to reduce the agency of an insect to a stereotype of their biology.
Not sure why you'd getting downvoted here but it's absolutely been used (a lot) to push racist ideas. I first heard it from an antisemite.
I think it's just a shit message - "people will betray you on surprising ways, trust no one"
Isn’t the message that people will betray you in _un_surprising ways?
I never took it as bleakly as don't trust anyone.
Frog knows the scorpion is untrustworthy but ignores his intuition and gets burnt for it. I take it as don't get involved with someone that would drag you down with them.
For anyone trying to prove anything with it, it's a parable, so it's advice, not a research paper! 🐸
Speaking of frog parables pretending to be research papers: the whole “a scientist did an experiment and if you boil water slowly enough the frog won’t jump out and just sits there until it dies”. It turns out that’s bullshit. The scientist was trying to figure out brain stuff, so he removed the brains from the frogs and they didn’t jump out when he boiled them. The frogs that still had their brains jumped out of the water around the same temperature as a person would step out of a too-hot shower (25°C).
Scorpions would never sting my back
Said the person who just voted for the "Scorpions stinging backs" party.
I guess it's both. You wouldn't expect someone to sabotage themselves
I've always preferred the monk and the scorpion one, but I guess it could be used the same way. Never thought about it, honestly.
Ofc you misunderstood the message.
Unfortunately, alot of us lived to see that message play out irl. Not in the racist ways obviously, but still
They got upvoted but should have been downvoted because they're just inventing a weird new sensitivity that you have to strain to even believe can exist in another person's mind.