Over the years, I've had about a dozen close girlfriends and hundreds of casual girls-night-out buddies. Not once do I remember anyone joking about men not being too smart. Where do you get your "all women, always" from?
So you're saying that despite hundreds of female acquaintances going on nightly excursions, you've never heard even one of them express exasperation or jesting concern over men in general over the course of years? Never once a comment on how men don't pick up on things, never once a comment on how men don't understand, and all possible criticisms are individual-specific?
Either:
a) You're just making this up. Humans are just not that invariable. I've had hundreds of casual night-out buddies of both sexes... and I would be lying if I could state any thread that ran through all of one gender, anatomical traits aside.
Hell, I'd be hard pressed to find a thread that ran through even half of them, with the possible exceptions of 'likes to imbibe some form of inebriating substance' and 'speaks English'
b) You state 'joking', so perhaps all general criticisms of men were considered serious statements?
c) You state you don't remember, so perhaps you get so blind drunk you can't remember any conversation?
"all women, always" is not that much worse than "no women, never"
I know gender discussions make everyone blind with emotion but come on. How do you go from a few hundred casual drinking buddies over the years to blind-drunk nightly excursions? And from "not once do I remember anyone joking about men not being too smart" to "no women ever make any negative comments about men whatsoever"?
Of course "no women, never" argument is just as stupid as, "all women, always" argument. If I made the argument. You took my rather short counterpoint/anecdote and ran away with it. Far, far away.
I didn't run as far as you think I did: "you've never heard even one of them express exasperation or jesting concern over men in general over the course of years". As for And from "not once do I remember anyone joking about men not being too smart" to "no women ever make any negative comments about men whatsoever"?, you're putting words in my mouth. I never said that.
How do you go from a few hundred casual drinking buddies over the years to blind-drunk nightly excursions
That was one of three options in my "Either" list, jokingly picking up on your "I don't remember" comment.
When you're complaining of other people taking you out of context, it behooves you to take them in context.
The "no woman, never" thing was referring to you saying that in your vast experience of socialising with women, you do not recall a single incidence of -foo-. In casual talk, that's making the point "no, never".
Are these your friends or your family? If it's the former, time to find new friends. If it's the latter, a dysfunctional family doesn't need to warp your sense of what the rest of the world is like.
See you have just insulted both my family and friends, and it's ok. In the same sense people can joke about my family, friends or me and it is ok as well. Again, you guys need to just chill.
I didn't say anything about your friends or family that you didn't say first. You told us that they constantly make fun of you for not being too smart, or did I misinterpret? I don't think it's bad to suggest that you don't need to subject yourself to verbal abuse from people around you, or, in the case of family, choose to take the abuse with at least a big grain of salt.
As overdue as it was, women and blacks being able to vote is not "6 times better".
60 years to 80 years life expectancy is not "6 times better".
26 to 7 infant mortality is not "6 times better".
8% to 30% college graduation rate is not "6 times better".
Estimated hourly wages have actually fallen drastically, when estimated apples to apples (i.e. adjusted for inflation).
Labor productivity is mostly based on advances in technology, and in any event, working harder is hardly the same as being "6 times better" off.
In other words, let's stay within the context of what is actually being argued. Plus, it's rude to open your argument with, You honestly have to ask this question? If you have something to say, you can say it without implying that @samtp is too dumb to see the obvious.
Add to that the declining purchasing power of the dollar, the growing income disparity and the thinning out of the middle and upper-middle class, etc, etc.
Average life expectancy in the US:
1930 - 60 yrs
2010 - 78 yrs
Clearly, Mr. Buffet's statement is PR rather than fact.
