Generalization is "generally" ok!
How many times has this happened:
You make a comment about some group of people, and an overly sensitive person replies: "You can't generalize!"
Is that a logical response?
Of course not.
People often get defensive when they don't like the claim being made. To hell with whether or not the claim is true or not.
Oftentimes claims are made about groups whereby it should be obvious that the claim isn't meant to describe every single member of that group.
Let's say someone claims that gay men are feminine. Would any reasonable person believe that the speaker meant to claim that every single gay man is feminine? No. Yet people bizarrely get defensive when such claims are made about certain groups.
However, if one was to make a claim about a less sensitive topic, such as "Men are stronger than women", I bet you wouldn't hear much opposition at all. It's simply understand that not every single man is stronger than every single woman.
But there's another problem that arises with the argument "you can't generalize". The claim is often made with such authority that it implies that the generalizer is making a claim about every single member of the group. But in actuality, when someone says "you can't generalize", they have themself defeated their own argument! Here's why:
To generalize means something is "generally true", and hence it's implied that it's not always true. So of course you can generalize! This politically correct society has become so bizarre that the literal definition of words has even been lost in some instances!
Maybe the problem with those who dislike generalization is that they are, ahem, generally irrational.
How many times has this happened:
You make a comment about some group of people, and an overly sensitive person replies: "You can't generalize!"
Is that a logical response?
Of course not.
People often get defensive when they don't like the claim being made. To hell with whether or not the claim is true or not.
Oftentimes claims are made about groups whereby it should be obvious that the claim isn't meant to describe every single member of that group.
Let's say someone claims that gay men are feminine. Would any reasonable person believe that the speaker meant to claim that every single gay man is feminine? No. Yet people bizarrely get defensive when such claims are made about certain groups.
However, if one was to make a claim about a less sensitive topic, such as "Men are stronger than women", I bet you wouldn't hear much opposition at all. It's simply understand that not every single man is stronger than every single woman.
But there's another problem that arises with the argument "you can't generalize". The claim is often made with such authority that it implies that the generalizer is making a claim about every single member of the group. But in actuality, when someone says "you can't generalize", they have themself defeated their own argument! Here's why:
To generalize means something is "generally true", and hence it's implied that it's not always true. So of course you can generalize! This politically correct society has become so bizarre that the literal definition of words has even been lost in some instances!
Maybe the problem with those who dislike generalization is that they are, ahem, generally irrational.
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