I was watching 'The Daily Show' this week, and host John Stewart was calling out Fox News for criticizing people for making negative generalizations about Fox when they themselves were guilty of the same thing. It made me stop and think for a minute, and I realized just how common negative generalizations are .
Whether they are used to further a political or personal agenda or sell us something, negative generalizations are present in every form of media nowadays, and are applied to people from every walk of life. All liberals are bleeding heart tree huggers. All conservatives are bible thumping fear mongers. The Tea Partiers are racist lunatics. This diet plan or exercise equipment will keep everyone who buys it from being an unattractive, lazy slob. And on and on.
As much as I like to think of myself as open-minded and tolerant, I too generalize much more than I should, some of it negative. For the most part it's not intentional, yet I find myself consistently doing it unless I make a concerted effort to be aware of it. I know that negative rationalizations are almost always false and unproductive, yet I can't seem to stop myself from thinking them from time to time.
Do you generalize too much? If so, why? How much of your generalizing is negative?
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5 comments:
Hmm...This is a question I will have to ponder a bit. I preach positivity in my home, to my children, but do I live it? I'd like to think I do. I think we all would. But the reality is, many of us fall into the negative black hole. Why? I think it's because it's the easier thing to do. The easier way to live. If we talk bad about people or only expect the worse, then we won't have to try as hard. We won't expect much out of life, so why out any effort into it.
I know this may have spun your question a different way, but I started pondering and there it went.
SIS Barb aka Elle J Rossi
Elle,
Anything is fair game here. Spin away!
I'm sure I do it myself but it drives me insane when other people do it. (I never claimed to be consistent. LOL!) I'm fairly conservative myself but I have a lot of very liberal friends. I usually keep my views to myself but when they start railing against all conservatives yada yada yada, I feel compelled to give them a gentle poke and say, "Chill out." *g* We do a lot of agreeing to disagree. :)
Tori,
Agreeing to disagree is by far the greatest invention of mankind lol I wish more people would give it a try, especially those in positions of power and public trust.
Hi Krys
I find myself generalizing every now and then. I try to stay positive because I don't like being around people who are negative. I feel like it brings me down. I'm neither conservative or liberal but somewhere in between.
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