Quote:
Originally Posted by RealJames
If there was a nationwide poll in Japan that asked "do you prefer pasta or bread" and it came out 8:1 favoring bread, then it's entirely okay to say Japanese people generally like bread more than pasta.
Now bread and pasta is hardly controversial, but change that to a pass/fall for literacy, or a presidential election or whatever, and it doesn't change the facts.
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I agree for the most part of what you're saying, except for this. Of course, if there's a sweeping margin like your bread/pasta example, then it's safe to assume this as accurate. But there are plenty of times where the margin is a lot closer, like 50/50, or 60/40. In these instances, if you're going to apply the same logic, then you're generalizing an entire half of people who don't show the same values or traits as the group you're generalizing. And when we're talking about a scale as large as nations, such as America, then you're making an inaccurate generalization of over 150 million people.