(July 7, 2010 at 5:38 pm)Paul the Human Wrote: 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.
Really? You'd think I meant 'Delivering milk is stupid' as opposed to 'Every milkman is stupid' or at least 'Most milkmen ar stupid'? Well, I suppose we all interpret things in different ways. In perhaps a more relevant analogy, if I said, 'Creationists are stupid', whilst that might imply that creationism is itself stupid, you would certainly interpret it as a personal attack on creationists as people, a comment about their IQ.
Quote: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'.
Obviously, there had to be a reason at one time for stereotypes to arise. However, we have to bear in mind that things may change over time, or that a particular conception of a certain group, for whatever reason, happens to have become prominent in the public perception, when there are other conceptions which may be more accurate. For example, go to France and you won't see people riding round on bicycles with onions round their necks. Not in Paris, anyway.
Quote: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?
Of course terrorism is almost universally synonymous with Islam. Probably most terrorists are Muslim. That doesn't say anything about how many Muslims are terrorists. Nor does my conception of Jamaicans as a bong-smoking, limboing people necessarily have any bearing upon reality.
'We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.' H.L. Mencken
'False religion' is the ultimate tautology.
'It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions.' Mark Twain
'I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.' Abraham Lincoln
'False religion' is the ultimate tautology.
'It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions.' Mark Twain
'I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.' Abraham Lincoln