Humans ARE primates.
this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2026
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Yes but OP is right, primates pre-date us so anything we do similarly, they did it first and we copied them.
We didn’t copy, we are an extended branch of their abilities.
Which primates? Chimpanzees? They evolved from earlier primates too.
Yes, chimps also exhibit traits of even earlier primates.
Chimps didn't exist when homo erectus appeared.
Still doesn't seem like you're getting my point.
Well i meant homo sapiens maybe i was misusing the word humans, but erectus is a different species than us.
That's the exact point OP is making. Humans do primate things because they're primates.
I have no thoughts on the matter, but here's a couple monkeys I saw this morning.
They saw what you did and are very disappointed in you.
When I stopped my bike to look at the monkeys, the front wheel slipped on some wet leaves and caught the bike while accidentally revving the engine and hitting my balls on the fuel tank. The monkeys saw it all.
Ahh.. but humans are primates?
So wouldn't that make both true? Other primates would display human like qualities, while the inverse of 'humans do primate things' also holds true?
I can see what OP is getting at but it's really an argument around semantics, and sentence structure.
For example, we don't say "Some fruits are similar to Apples", because it sounds daft and it's redundant.
On the other hand saying "Pears are similar to Apples" is of course fine, and helpful to someone who's never seen a Pear.
Like most shower thoughts, they're pointing out something obvious, but in an emotive way. "Primates aren't like us, we are like them!"
In terms of biology, specifically botany, we do say some fruits are similar to apples. This comparison seems like a biological one too.
It's important to combat anthropocentric bias. Primates came first we're actually the newest ones, so if we share behaviors, they did it first and we copied them.
Humans are in the set of primates, but not all primates are human.
Still, your showerthought says "a subset of primates are doing primate things".
Well humans are the newest primates so anything we do similar to other primates, they did it first and it's us who copied them.
No we're not.
Heck, chimpanzees and bobobos only branched from each other like a million years ago.
Modern day non-humaj primates evolved from common ancestors, just like us.
What's a newer primate than humans?
All the other primates out there that have evolved into their current species over the last million years that we evolved into ours?
We're all evolving. I don't know which primate species would be considered the "newest" currently but that's also probably being revised all the time as we discover more. But I'm sure either we're not the "latest" or it's pretty close.
We're not the latest in some chain of primate species, being the ultimate version. Thats not how evolution works.
Well ultimate meaning last chronologically, yes. Im not an expert but from googling casually, Homo sapiens appeared around 250k years ago and bonobos and chimps about 1.5M years ago. So i think we are chronologically the newest primates to appear, all normative judgments aside.
Exactly — 'Like' is a comparison and doesn't imply belonging to a set. Someone can be 'like a piece of shit' without belonging to a greater class of shits
The human monkey is easy to spot from its belief that it is not a monkey nor even an animal.
Feels like a weird unnecessary distinction between Humans and other Great Apes like them.
But there certainly are activities unique to humans such as filing taxes.
As I was running my fingers through my hair, I was struck with I'm just a monkey with delusions of not monkiness.
The other catarrhine monkeys don't have umbrellas, though, so we're clearly superior.
I also like our use of electricity and air conditioning!
^this
All primates doing primate things is exactly what you'd expect primates to do
In Prometheus Rising it is described that instead of dabbing poop at the edges of our territories, we just dab ink on borders.
No, we absolutely still do dab poop at the edges of our territories.
On a small scale (private property) quite literally, in regions that don't have internal plumbing.
And metaphorically, with countries preferably building landfills and polluting industry in border regions.
Never monkey around with another monkeys monkey. I learned that!