Some, most, a lot of

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I feel that if I don't stick "some", "most", "a lot of" in front of "people", other forum users assume that I mean literally everybody in the entire world and always have to jump all over me and correct me.
But I find that using the word "people" without sticking an adverb in front of it actually puts better emphasis on what I'm trying to say.

For example, if I was ranting, "people are so annoying!", It just sounds better than ranting "some/a lot of people are so annoying!" I get tired of having to always add an adverb or pronoun or whatever it's called in front of it. I suppose it comes from there being a lot of* literal thinkers here but I'm just writing this to help some of you understand this type of use of the English language.

*See - I had to use "a lot of" there because if I had just said "I suppose it comes from there being literal thinkers here" then I would most probably have gotten replies saying "we're not all literal thinkers".

Sometimes I get exhausted from always having to express that I mean "some, not all" all the time here. The only time taking it literally is more understandable is if you wrote words like "all" and "everyone".
So when I say that there are literal thinkers here I don't mean everybody here is a literal thinker. But there are literal thinkers here.

The trouble might come if you happen to say "black people do this," or "white people do that."

I don't feel there's much wrong in saying "people" in general.

Your use of "people" implies people in general. You shouldn't have to add an adjective etc to express what you mean.

I think most people are aware of that but they just want to criticize and correct you any way. People are like that.

Its acceptable to say "people are annoying", or "humans are no damned good". No one should give you grief about it.

But as Krafty said - its when you subdivide humans- thats when folks (rightly) get their hackles up.

All Republicans are doo-doo heads, all Dems have kooties, all Blacks are such and such, all Jews are this and that. Then you have to put in qualifiers. And be willing to withstand brick bats.

When I say "humans are scum/trash/stupid/evil", it seems I don't have to even put "most humans are", most people agree with me that all of us are this way.

People agree with me when I say that people are stupid.

This "outside observer" agrees.


Plan 9 from outer space

I suspect this has to do with us autistics tending to be known for being literal & black & white thinkers & some feel a want/need/desire to be precise. I used to be like that, well I still am some but I'm a lot better than I used to be or hope I am anyway.

If you post in L&D that "Men care about blank" or "Women care about blank", another gender battle erupts

Or they just understand there's little point arguing with bitter misanthropes because of tendencies to misinterpret disagreement with those perspectives as hostility instead of just a differently informed perspective.

Because it's a tendency that can become self-reinforcing after awhile (if someone believes it deeply lots of interactions and observations will tend to reinforce it) it can seem like a lost cause to challenge people who are sincerely misanthropic.

Or they dismiss it as humour and agree because you're kidding, you must be.

Last edited by funeralxempire on 03 Sep 2022, 12:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

When I was younger my brother once wouldn't stop complaining that I was always saying "always" or "never" instead of something like "usually" or "sometimes". It's ironic he too said "always", but being a typical brother it was okay whenever *he* did something, it was only when I did it that was wrong.

That's just my aspie tendency to see things in black and white, I guess. Or maybe it isn't. But as Calvin once told his dad, "Sometimes that's the way things are!", or something to that effect.

I remember when I was around a teen or young adult seeing commercials on TV for some parenting book for dysfunctional families & the the counselor guy was saying that people do not always do something or never do something & Always & Never words needed to quit being used.

"Always" and "never" words are usually used as a figure of speech.

I remember one time when I was at school and the teacher was calling out our names on the register, and 5 out of 30 children were absent. When the teacher got to the fifth absent child's name he asked "where is everybody?" But what he was really asking was "why are there 5 children absent today, it's more than usual".

I don't generally take subtle figures of speech literally. I know what people really mean and I don't expect people to be pedantic. Admittedly I do find interacting with other Aspies exhausting because of this. (I don't want to put *some* before Aspies but that still doesn't mean I mean all Aspies but me are the same).

I'm wondering how many non-autistic kids were actually majorly bothered by their parents talking that way with them It's common for kids & teens to use figures of speech like that & if parents are not using that with their kids, the parents might not be talking to the kids on their own level & it could be even harder for them to communicate.

The only thing that's really wrong with this world is that there are humans in it. There should not be any humans. Or at least no more than two or three billion, anyway. But that's a whole other topic so that's all I'm going to say.