Originally Posted by Phil Ayesho

once more you are making the huge assumption that
A. stereotypes are not useful.
And
B. human beings are capable of NOT stereotyping.



You have yet to show ANY shred of proof or even analogy that those two assumptions are even remotely valid.

For example. In science biologists deal with Species.
The very concept of species is stereotype.

We are lumping a bunch of animals that each have a unique genotype into a group based upon certain shared qualities...

These qualities need not be present in every member of the group... they need only have a certain percentage of these qualities to belong to a given species.
There ARE tigers without stripes who are, nevertheless, tigers.

However, that does not mean that "stripes" is not part of the species descripotion.

In a larger sense, we can not SAY anything about Anything, without generalizing.
Einstein's laws describing Gravity are a generalization. We use them under the pure assumption that these laws are the same everywhere in the universe.
And yet we have no way of knowing that they are.


Discussions are one thing... arguments are another. Arguments imply contention and disagreement...


While I feel that ad hominems are unnecessary and less than exalted... they are bound to occur when folks with differing ideas lock horns in debate.

Its not a big deal... You do not have a right to live unoffended. If you call yourself an adult, you should be able to shrug it off.




As to your list..

Sorry
Anyone calling themselves a Chrisitan, a bisexual, Gay...
IS STEREOTYPING THEMSELVES.

THEY are the ones assuming a label that classifies them in certain ways.
They WANT people to draw certain conclusions about them based upon their self labeling.

Christians, for example, want others to believe that they are more moral, more family oriented , more trustworthy... because of their christian beliefs.

People who have self labeled get upset when other people do not make the RIGHT assumptions about them... based upon how THEY evaluate their label.

This is merely frustration that other people aren't stereotyping them in the way they PREFER.
Labeling yourself is an attempt to exert control over how others perceive you.

But others, not of your label, are gonna have their OWN ideas about the characteristics that they see in your self selected group.



Sorry Marley...
ALL christians ARE delusional. They are believing something based upon a 1700 year old book complied by folks trying to turn a superstition into a money making business.
They have zero evidence that this book is any more true than Harry Potter. Zero evidence for their imaginary sky daddy...

And they DEMAND that I take their delusion seriously and accord their delusion respect.


That is the shared characteristic that I see among the people who stick fishes on their OWN cars!


I am more than happy to defend my assumptions with actual argument and evidence... to show that I have valid REASONING behind this sterotype.

And wheter we realize it or not... whether we can admit to it or not...
we are ALL the same in this respect.


Its one of the defining traits of our species.