I think its just the arrogance of most people shining through. Most people don't want to call themselves apes (Even though we are), so they attribute intelligent things like "Dangerous animal" to the smart human and the "haha fluffy" to the disgusting, stupid ape.
An ape is any gilless organic rna dna protein based metabolic metazoic nucleic diploid bilaterally symmetrical endothermic digestive tripoblast deuterostome coelomate with a spinal cord and 12 cranial nerves connecting to a limbic system in an enlarged cerebral cortex with a reduced olfactory region inside a jawed skull with specialised teeth including canines and premolars, forward oriented fully enclosed optic orbits in a single temporal fenestra attached to a vertebrate, hind leg dominant tetrapodal skeleton with a sacral pelvis clavicle and wrist and ankle bones and having lungs, tear ducts, body wide hair follicles, lacteal mummeries, opposable thumbs and keratinised dermis, chitinous nails on all 5 digits on all four extremities in addition to an embryonic development in amniotic fluid leading to a placental birth and a highly social lifestyle. Everyone of those criteria matches humans, chimps, gorillas, and many others. It doesn't apply to any other form. That's why we are apes.
Bears and dogs are actually distant relatives. The two split ways about 38 million years ago (for reference dogs and wolves split about 10-15,000 years ago...) Dogs and Bears are both part of the order Caniformia. Foxes, weasels, sea lions and wolves are also relatives in the family among species alive today. So the idea they are “big fluffy dogs, supersized” is actually somewhat accurate.
I have to ask if you've been watching a debate involving Inmate #06452017 lately. I have known that particular thing for some time, but it seems a bit of a coincidence to hear that soon after this was mentioned in an on-going debate. Not saying it's impossible, but it made me curious enough to ask.
I have not. Like you, it happens to be something I just learned a long time ago, and it floats around in my head until a moment it is apt. In this case, a meme involving a bear and making mention of dog like properties seemed to be the perfect place to mention the relation.
I used to play a survival game with bears that would kill you in one shot. The worse part is that a lot of the time they would look like boulders until you got closer and by then you'd already be in its aggro range. Ended up referring to them as "fuzzy rocks". So now that's what I always think of them as. Lol.
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https://youtu.be/IvKVGL95wDw
literally your mindset