No, everybody doesn’t…

Published on by Grace

Everybody:  knows, thinks, says, feels, wants, likes, dislikes, etc. – on and on. And that irks me. That bit of word usage. What would you call it – a generalization?  Well I don’t like it. It’s lazy. It’s dismissive (“Well, everybody knows that” – said with a sneer. “Well no they don’t” said equally sneeringly.)

Don’t get me wrong – I am just as guilty of this as the next person. Sweeping statements of preferences and prejudices. Little Suzie Know-it-all. I’ve been that/her.

On the not so negative side of that – I think/have thought that everybody (here it goes!) is just like me. Just as flawed, just as fucked up. They aren’t of course. People are – flawed and fucked up – but each in their own way.

And I still don’t know what the hell the thing is that someone told me everybody knows…

13 thoughts on “No, everybody doesn’t…”

  2. Ah, l see this was me that used the ‘Everybody Knows’ statement that caused an irksome – l read this post a couple of days ago and liked it and thought ‘oh l use that phrase’ and now as l am working on the QTOC post l see it was me who made mention to it regarding sustainability tips. Well l appologise Grace. I perhaps wrongly assumed everyone would know sustainability tips. It wasn’t meant to cause an annoyance, however l will now stand corrected and endeavour to not assume ‘everyone knows’.

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    1. I used to have a bad habit of exclaiming “But it’s so easy!” and then I was called out on it with “It might be easy for you but that doesn’t mean it is easy for everyone”. And that can be applied to “everyone knows…” Yes, we are all guilty of saying things like that but I think we should take some care before doing so…it makes people feel stupid or small – it’s not nice when you think about it.

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      1. Well, l hope after all the time we have communicated to each other over the years, you would have known there was no malice in my tone when l responded and how l responded to you that day. It’s not my way to belittle or speak down to people. However, l have apologised to you; it is heartfelt and meant.

        My ‘everyone knows’ wasn’t meant to be read as if l was sneering at you or referring to you as small – it was merely as in ‘everyone knows something whether they know it or not as in it is an a,b or c, type of statement. My error was not to elaborate further on how it was meant to be read.

        However, you are quite right 🙂

        Sometimes in the written word, misinterpretations can be made that wouldn’t be made in real-time; l remember a couple of years ago reading a comment you left for me on one of my posts on the Guy blog, and l had to read it half a dozen ways to realise what you had meant and that you weren’t insulting me 🙂

        So point taken 🙂

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        1. Oh my darling friend – I owe you an apology as well – I puzzled over that a while and my frame of mind lately has not been good – things are not well here. Tone of voice is all too often SO hard to ascertain in the written word – I’m just opening my mouth and changing feet here, aren’t I So – are we good?

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    1. I suppose they can be helpful – depends on the subject/situation. Perhaps prefaced by “In general…” so many things are based on averages/medians/general information-knowledge. Statistics have their place – a basic jumping off point – you have to start somewhere…

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        1. Ah, labels! Only for pickle jars as Louisa May Alcott said. But I get what you mean – yet- can you be a liberal and a Republican? LOL And as I said sometimes generalizations can be useful but often need – I’m struggling for the word here – what is the word I’m looking for? The only one that is coming to mind is ‘caveat’ and that’s not the one I want.

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