You’re right, in many ways it isn’t, but I don’t think it’s relevant in this context. We’re talking generalization when it comes to random groups. When you’re a cyclist, it’s reasonable to think you like cycling. It’s not reasonable to judge your morality, taste or family status. It works for all kinds of groups. We’re talking about the fact that groups of any kind are not homogeneous.
Some groups are very much homogeneous by design. Religious dimwits and police come to mind. I judge the morality of those groups all the time and I sleep fine. Meanwhile I feel kinda bad for swiping whichever way is ‘reject’ on dating apps. I’ll agree that is not right for most groups. But groups founded on hatred (police and rekigion) or for the purpose of being obnoxious/attention seeking (ABATE motorcycle chapters) can absolutely be generalized.
Now keep in mind we’re discussing in a thread where the top level comment was from an admitted Nazi sympathizer.
In some respects, yes. In the respect they are talking about in this comment, not so much.
The point of their comment is that even if you’re born with something in common with another person, say both of you are born left handed, what else can we infer about both of those left handers? Nothing, nothing at all. Sure they may have other things in common, they may both like the same music, but that isn’t due to their left handedness.
In some ways you can infer a few things about a group, for the book club example, you know they like books and that’s it, if it’s a science fiction book club then you can also infer they like science fiction, but can you tell me the race, age, sexuality, gender, food preferences, music preferences, TV preferences, medical history, yadda yadda, anything else about all the members of that book club? No, you can’t. Because (and this was the point of their comment) book clubs and those in them (and all other groups that aren’t used for examples here too) are not a monolith incapable of individual thought.
Being part of a group of your choosing is very different from being part of a group you are born into.
You’re right, in many ways it isn’t, but I don’t think it’s relevant in this context. We’re talking generalization when it comes to random groups. When you’re a cyclist, it’s reasonable to think you like cycling. It’s not reasonable to judge your morality, taste or family status. It works for all kinds of groups. We’re talking about the fact that groups of any kind are not homogeneous.
Some groups are very much homogeneous by design. Religious dimwits and police come to mind. I judge the morality of those groups all the time and I sleep fine. Meanwhile I feel kinda bad for swiping whichever way is ‘reject’ on dating apps. I’ll agree that is not right for most groups. But groups founded on hatred (police and rekigion) or for the purpose of being obnoxious/attention seeking (ABATE motorcycle chapters) can absolutely be generalized.
Now keep in mind we’re discussing in a thread where the top level comment was from an admitted Nazi sympathizer.
In some respects, yes. In the respect they are talking about in this comment, not so much.
The point of their comment is that even if you’re born with something in common with another person, say both of you are born left handed, what else can we infer about both of those left handers? Nothing, nothing at all. Sure they may have other things in common, they may both like the same music, but that isn’t due to their left handedness.
In some ways you can infer a few things about a group, for the book club example, you know they like books and that’s it, if it’s a science fiction book club then you can also infer they like science fiction, but can you tell me the race, age, sexuality, gender, food preferences, music preferences, TV preferences, medical history, yadda yadda, anything else about all the members of that book club? No, you can’t. Because (and this was the point of their comment) book clubs and those in them (and all other groups that aren’t used for examples here too) are not a monolith incapable of individual thought.
Thank you, yes, exactly.