Yes it's ok to generalize. That is how humans quickly cope with an overwhelming amount of information. But you always need to be flexible and willing to recognize that not everyone fits the generalization.
this post was submitted on 15 May 2024
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It is also important to stop and ask yourself what you're generalizing and why.
If you see a guy walking down a neighborhood street dressed like a letter carrier you can probably assume he is a letter carrier.
But maybe he is a stripper on his way to a party.
and some will protest it.
Generally? Yes. Specifically? No.
No, itβs never okay to generalize. Unless youβre saying my previous sentence in which case itβs okay.
I disagree. It's fine to generalize about all people all the time. Every single one of them loves it.
Dang Lemmy users and their silly questions. They're all the same!
It's not just ok, it's basically an requirment for civilisation to work at all.
I'd say it's sometimes ok, sometimes necessary for brevity, and sometimes accurate. Accurate = "All people need oxygen, water, and calories to survive." Brevity = "Generally speaking, people enjoy good food and good company so those situations work well for forming relationships."
Consequences of generalizations have a lot to do with how tolerable they are. If I say, "most people like pizza" there's not much harm if several million people don't. If I say, "all or most people of this gender/ethnicity/religion/whatever have X problem" that's a lot more problematic because it can easily lead to a consequence of harmful prejudice. When it comes to matters of ethics, beliefs, accusations etc. it becomes very important to handle cases individually as much as humanly possible.
Generalization is a mental shortcut that simplifies things at the cost of accuracy. Ex: Dogs are canines. A Chihuahua is a canine. A wolf is a canine. But a Chihuahua is very different from a wolf.
This question can probably be interpreted a dozen different ways, so youβll likely get answers to questions you hadnβt intended 
Ok, look, there are two kinds of people...
accountants and actuaries get to generalize
And by that logic, statisticians/pollsters
You do it every day whether you choose to or not, because that's how the human brain works. So yes. Just be willing to change your ideas when a generalisation is no longer useful.
I over all, I think that people as a whole should generalize less.
Generally, that is.
People that ask these kind of questions have no moral compass
Seems like a generalized comment.