• EveryMuffinIsNowEncrypted
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    9 months ago

    People are comparing based on incomplete data. It may be short for one country, but there are humans in other countries too. If those countries population were all shorter than the other, would that make them short? No, it would simply adjust what qualifies as normal.

    For a species-wide judgment one needs a species-wide dataset.

    • Kusimulkku@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      Normality is what you have around you. That’s the context people compare things in, usually. Someone short in the UK might be average elsewhere, but when people say “I’m short” or “he’s tall”, it’s with an unsaid for what I typically see around me implied there.

      • EveryMuffinIsNowEncrypted
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        9 months ago

        I fully understand that. I’m not saying people don’t do that; I’m merely saying that it is dumb as it’s an inherently incomplete dataset and therefore not a reliable source of measurement. In other words, I’m talking about what’s objectively normal, not what’s subjectively normal.

        Do people do that? Of course they do; I’m a dumbass, not an idiot. But I also don’t like it, and this is why.