Excuse me while I get mauled by a polar bear to get in the Christmas spirit.
this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2025
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The penguins we know today are not actual penguins. They are named after the real penguins which were prevalent in the northern hemisphere but which humans drove to extinction.
Edit: the Great Auk
I don't know if the page looks the same to others, but the bird that's pictured under that fact is not a great auk, they really do look like penguins.
For the lazy:
If you're referring to this little guy, he's what I have to pay whenever I get new sneakers: my shoebill
Yeah, not sure why Encyclopedia Britannica would not just omit the correct picture but also put in a link to another article for a completely different bird with a picture!
What an appropriate username for a discussion of animals. Awesome.
beautiful plumage
Penguins are a Christmas animal because they're all catholic.
Aww, momma used to beat us the same way
What’s the clip from? Looks hilarious, curious to see more.
If you've not seen the Blues Brothers go watch it right now. Order the DVD if you have to. Its absolutely worthwhile. Its an SNL spinoff film with a Legendary soundtrack featuring the biggest names in the Blues and Jazz scene. Great soundtrack, brilliant gags, incredible car chases and just a ton of rediculous chaos.
Blues Brothers. Legendary movie.
They're on a mission from Gad.
Aww, cute penguin feeding her young
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Puffin
Cormorant
Arctic tern
Common eider
King eider
White-tailed eagle
Kittiwake
Fulmar
Snow bunting
Northern gannet
Sanderling
Black guillemot
Brünnich’s guillemot
Little auk
Arctic skua
Long-tailed skua
Ptarmigan
Great northern diver
Red-throated diver
Glaucous gull
Lesser black-backed gull
Great black-backed gull
Ivory gull
Red phalarope (grey phalarope)
Pink-footed goose
Barnacle goose
Brant goose
Razorbill
Turnstone
https://oceanwide-expeditions.com/blog/22-enchanting-arctic-birds-and-their-most-fascinating-facts
The website has pictures.
I see the ongoing slide into labelling anything mildy analytical as autistic is in full swing.
Disability as a subculture or identity is just really cringe. Especially the deaf/blind organisations lobbying against curing childrens deafness/blindness.
I'd say subculture is fine. A subculture doesn't have to be bad or annoying. Identifying with autism is also totally fine. Recognizing kinship isn't bad.
Where it goes wrong is using it as an identity outright. "Sorry, I'm autistic" is just fucking more annoying after someone does something annoyingly autistic. Being autistic doesn't mean you literally cannot learn good social behavior. By the time that is true, there is definitely something more serious than autism involved.
Not arguing here. But just want to point out that disability subculture usually arises as a survival response in the face of discrimination and segregation. Everyone has a need for community and a sense of belonging. When broad hegemonic culture rejects you and your presence, belonging is found in the one distinctive feature that is the cause for the rejection and the source of cohesion with your peers. See also gay subculture as a response to homophobia, US black culture as a response to racism, feminist sorority subculture in response to misogyny, etc. So it is not rare to see disability subculture as a response to ableism. These communities are very important for security and preservation of individuals. Just as everywhere else, security is always a trade-off with something else.
Support community? Great. Using it as an excuse or identity like many autistic people do? Cringe.
You don't see black people going around talking jive, and then going, "oh sorry, you see I'm black" when they catch a confused look...
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Obviously autism can vary between people, but it's not something that's wrong with me, and I wouldn't want to cure it. I'm different than what's widely considered normal, but in a way that I think is fine. It's like having red hair or being transgender.
High functioning autism is a fine character trait to identify with. Though I seriously doubt someone who's basically mute takes pride in their autism.
Autism still isn't a disease though, you can't "cure" it, it's something we are. Even with the most disabled we should start with accepting them and offering the help they need, not just immediately label them as defected and try to erase who they are. Sure, let's figure out ways to lessen the worst symptoms, but how about if we'd just stop discriminating first and see where that leads
Nonverbal people are free to make up their own mind how they feel about it, but calling it "cringe" when people choose to come together over a shared identity and experience is extremely insulting.
We wouldn’t need a subculture if we weren’t oppressed and excluded from normal culture.
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Not exactly north pole.
To be fair, neither are reindeer IRL.
Santa's sleigh should be pulled by 8 murderous polar bears.
🎵Rudolph with his nose so red, better run now or you'll soon be dead🎶
Murderous flying polar bears.
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I can't say I've ever seen penguins in relation to christmas
I'm part of the problem. I have a penguin inflatable on my lawn. (I also have a dragon and a dinosaur, also not known for Christmas)
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Puffins are penguins if they didn’t give up on the whole flight thing
Am I missing something? A few penguin references / associations with Christmas, sure I've seen that. But, at least in my part of the world, they're not a major part of the lore -- or am I having a moment?
Either way, this can be easily explained: It's called being inclusive. The last thing you want is a north pole versus south pole world wide Christmas turf war, best to extend an olive branch andlean into that diversity and inclusion metric for the good of the world's children and the fate of humanity.
In order to do that you'd need to get the branch from more temperate latitudes so in keeping with this thread here goes their approximate range:
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I think it's marketing overreach. christmas->snow->snow animals->penguins
I do find it strange that there are less polar bears than penguins in Christmas decorations in NA
Probably Coca-cola and its legal teams have some degree of responsibility for the minimal polar bear association.
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