Islam is a peaceful religion

[Paul the Human]

Were I to say, 'Milkmen are stupid', it wouldn't be interpreted as, 'The action of delivering milk is stupid.'

That would be a more likely conclusion than assuming that you literally think that every individual milkman in the world is stupid. That would be quite a leap. Personally, I would take that to (probably) mean that there is something about the state of being 'a milkman' that bothers you, but I would never jump to any conclusion as to what that might be.

Also, is there such a thing as a 'justifiable generalisation'? It's something worthy of discussion, but surely the whole point of avoiding stereotypes is that they aren't true. Some may be more accurate or widely applicable than others, but, if they were true, they wouldn't be called stereotypes. 'All generalisations (except this one) are false' is the only true generalisation.

Stereotypes are based on truth. Sorry. If it weren't true often enough to have become a stereotype, it would just be a non-sequitur. Like... 'People that use Firefox all have blonde hair'.

And what I mean by 'justifiable generalization' is this: If I say that Muslims are terrorists... I obviously do not mean that every single Muslim in the world is a terrorist. At least not when I'm speaking casually in every day speech. The word Terrorist (at this time in history) is synonymous with Islam in the minds of the masses. Tell me I'm wrong. When you hear the word Terrorist, who do you picture?

That doesn't mean that you think that they are ALL terrorists.