Lump Them All Together

While I realize that a certain amount of prejudice is out there, and probably always will be out there, I believe there's a line between a understandable amount and downright foolishness.

For example, there will always be jokes out there about Asians who eat dogs. Why? Hell, because there are actually Asians out there who eat dogs. And they live in Asia. And some eat dogs because they don't consider them domestic pets as we do. And because we see them as domestic pets, we see the aforementioned eating of dogs to be quite gross.

But like I said, there's an understandable amount of joking until I realize that you might actually think I eat puppies. Now that's just wrong. First off, I'm not much of a dog person. I like cats. Secondly... well, actually, I can't really think of a secondly part. So I suppose the "first off" is really my only reason.

Never mind, I just thought of one.

I find it to be slightly odd, for people to lump people together and then say things such as "Well, you're different from everyone," or "You're an anomaly." In a group of people containing millions of people, if one person can be different from the, say, twelve that you know, wouldn't it be just as possible that there a lot of people out there who differentiate from your paradigms?

Essentially, Name-Withheld-Person #1 was chatting with Name-Withheld-Person #2 about Person-That-Name-Withheld-Person #2-Has-A-Crush-On, hereafter known as "Person #3." And P1, being the cocky, older person who thinks she knows everything, decided, out of the goodness of her heart, to tell P2 that "all guys are the same," and that "no matter how nice they say it, they all mean the same thing."

And that's when I turn to her and query her reasoning. "Really?" I wonder aloud. "How so?"

And her stuck-up self says, "Yeah, I can read a guy from a mile away."

So I smirk. Because this girl doesn't know me at all. P1 doesn't know a thing about me, so I decide to question her. "Oh, really? And what do you read about me?"

And in a fit of unsurpassed stupidity, she says, "Well, I can't read you. You're the only guy I can't read. I don't ever know what you're thinking."

I realize that's possibly not a good thing, as she'll probably never trust me enough as a friend.

At any rate, this is when Name-Withheld-Person #4, neighbor and close friend to P1, comes along and says, "Yeah, James is weird. He's different from other guys."

I would like to state now that I am one man on this Earth. One man out of fifty billion. If one guy can be different from the fifty that you are acquainted with, then logic and probability follows that there are a billion guys out there who are, and I quote, "different from other guys."

Don't lump people together, especially not like that. Everyone's different from everyone else, everyone's unique, and everyone dislikes being sorted like toys on a shelf. We're not here for your labeling leisure.