Sure, I've been trying to personally. But since it's a discussion specifically created for this subject I've decided to participate this time to share how I think about it and also to use the opportunity to learn a bit how far people are willing to generalize and why. Also it's just that it often feels it's not just a rhetorical device, but comes with malice or a genuine belief that white men are an enemy of sorts or inherently bad. Especially in such situations when it's not so much about skin color and it still gets specified. Like I mentioned in my original post here, that when it comes to things like sexual assault and misogyny.
It's true that white men are at the top of social ladder in America and generally in western culture, including here where I live. I also often assume that people here (ResetEra) are talking from American perspective and rarely point that out either. Like when police brutality is discussed, it's very American issue while not exclusive to them it's usually really clear that the discussion is about the US. I do appreciate when people are clearer what they are talking about. But misogyny, sexual assault, racism and bigotry towards LGBT are definitely universal issues. While every country is different, how badly are different minorities opressed, how big part of the population holds the harmful views, what does the goverment do to combat things etc. The severity of these things is varied. As there are places where women have had full political rights from 1907 (which is the earliest and it's very sad that it took so long) then there are places where women are just now allowed to drive and so on. And POC do get a priviledge in places where they are the majority, which is not America and definitely not here. But as I said I usually just assume the perspective is US one when I read it here, which is a shame since it's an international board and big part of posters aren't from America or never even visited there.
1. Yeah that's probably one reason, also that POC are indeed the minority so you encouter them less overall.
2. Drives to protect "their" women, rings bit bad in my ears since that's exactly what bigots here say they are doing too. People often get accused for using "Alt-Right tactics" in discussion, in here "protecting women" is indeed one very prevalent tactic. The over representation of certain nationalities in sexual assault/rape cases gets brought up a lot when talking about refugees/immigrants. It's basically the main talking point among unemployment/living on welfare.
3. True, not in white majority nations atleast. And racism isn't just about skin color either.
To conclude how I feel since I want to be absolutely clear about it. I agree that it sucks when discussion derails from actual opression to opression of straight white males which is not really a thing but does get brought up by crazies claiming they are being persecuted. Or when the bigotry of religious groups gets challenged, they scream persecution and opression. But I also find it quite easy to avoid such generalizations that would give the opportunity to such derail, or make people feel unfairly attacked, such generalizations aren't beneficial, so I'd rather see discussions where it doesn't happen. Even though OP doesn't seem particularly interested in hearing from those who are bothered by the generalizations, I'm quite glad the discussion is happening in this topic rather than somewhere else where it shouldn't.
And thank you for your thoughtful and calm reply, I do really agree with most of what you said and how you seem to think even though my lenghty reply included more than just "I agree".
I'm glad we can have thoughtful calm discussions too. You seem to be coming at it too from a perspective where you just don't want to give disengenuous types the ability to derail. \ I'm just tired of those people, I kind of have grown cynical and think "well, they're going to derail anyways." In general though, in conversation if someone stops me and says "don't generalize" I'll just say something like "I don't mean 100% of people, of course, so remember that for future reference if I talk like that." I don't think it's too much to ask to throw a disclaimer out once or twice, but if someone's just waiting and watching for you to generalize, I don't think they're listening to the actual message itself, just more so how it's presented.
We're in agreement I think a lot, and again I can't really say much for those outside of America. White european colonialism has kind of complicated the matter, but your point makes sense to me. A Japanese person would be a PoC in America. Yet if an American lived in Japan, they would be a minority and experience what it's like to be a minority and a foreigner. I have briefly traveled in other countries, and I highly recommend it to people because the experience of being the 'other' is something valuable. This is probably why a lot of poor white Americans are more inclined to be racist; they haven't had the opportunity to be put themselves in the shoes of a foreigner or other minority. I'm pretty firmly middle class and have grown up with a diverse family and friend group, so I've had experiences they haven't.
As for your comments about generalization coming from a place of malice, where it regards things like misogyny or sexism... that requires some context. The 'man-hating' feminist cliche is rarely, if ever true. (I've met maybe one or two women like that, and I've run in some pretty intensely feminist and queer groups). But I can get why these sorts of things would make men feel attacked or threatened, because rape and sexual assault are very serious issues.
In the context of the post OP where he said something like "all men are shit", he was giving advice to his young cousin about to head off to college, and warning her to be careful. As a woman, I know logically that not ALL men are rapists or capable of sexual assault. My little brother is my most beloved person in my entire life, and I know he could never do something like that. Yet I know that there are a some of men out there that DO pose a threat. I'm only one woman, and I've experienced numerous sexual assaults, was raped several times by an ex, been followed to my car several times, had pictures taken of me without my consent, followed by men in cars while jogging, and been nearly trapped and assaulted by men when cuddling or kissing my current (also female) partner. And I'm one of the women who's been aware of this shit and circumspect as I possibly can be. AND I've had it incredibly easy compared to shit my mom, my current partner and my sister have been through.
So in effect, women have to assume men they don't know are a danger, until proven otherwise. If we gave the benefit of the doubt and believed the best in every male stranger, we could easily end up dead. This is the context in which OP was giving advice, so that hopefully no harm comes to his cousin. We know there are good men out there. Some of us have some great brothers, sons, dads, nephews, cousins, boyfriends, husbands, etc. If you're not the type of man who would treat a woman badly either in words or actions, just rest assured you're not one of the ones we're talking about when we say things like 'men suck' or anything of that nature. Be good to the women in your life and be secure in that.
For me personally, when I'm talking about toxic men I will use qualifiers like "dudebros" or "incels" or "MRAs" or "creepy pervert" whatever fits the bill for that brand of toxic man. It's more useful to me anyways in describing the problem I have.
