Statements about Groups are Different from Statements about Individuals

If I make the statement: "Men are taller than women", most people will correctly interpret what I said as implying that men are ON AVERAGE taller than women. But there will always be some lamebrain, usually a Leftist of some kind, who will say something like: "But look at Andrea. She is taller than most men here". The lamebrain will think that he has made a devastating refutation of the initial statement by saying that. All he has shown, of course, is that he cannot tell the difference between statements about groups and statements about individuals.

A statement about the tallness of an individual is tested by measuring that individual. A statement about the tallness of a group is tested by measuring all people in the group or a representative sample of them. The two statements are OPERATIONALLY different. They say different things so they are tested differently.

So the statement that "blacks are very crime prone" implies NOTHING about any individual black. Blacks ARE very crime prone but there are still many blacks who are law-abiding.

I would hope that everybody was familiar with that bit of elementary logic but discourse about groups has got to the point where Leftists in particular tend to claim that statements about a group refer to ALL members of that group. And there is no doubt that the statement "ALL blacks are criminal" would be both racist and incorrect. In contrast, the statement: "blacks have a very high rate of criminality" is both correct and may not be in any way racist. Facts are not racist. Leftists, however, DO tend to assert that such statements are racist. But when were Leftists ever concerned about logic? Not very often. Their aim is usually to sound good rather than to be logical.

Sorry if all that seems elementary but the elementary does often seem to need spelling out.