As A Former Liberal

I still had some liberal friends.  Still have a couple clinging at the edges, but they're more centrist of late.

I had a rough patch with one where I confronted her over her liberal bigotry concerning my white, straight, maleness.

One of her defenses was that she did not mean me, and how most of her very liberal friends knew a "republican" who wasn't like that at all.

In context, "republican" means conservative.

There's a few things that fell out of that while I was considering her interest in being friends again.

Since every one of them knows an exception to the strawman they're hating on, maybe Mr Strawman doesn't really exist.

Every one of them knows an exception to the strawman, but none of them can name someone they know in meatspace who is exactly Mr Strawman.

I, too, know lots of exceptions to the frothing liberal stereotype; but I also know a couple of people who conform to the stereotype 100% (but this is definitely the minority).

I wish it would occur to them, as it occurred to me, that if they're constantly encountering the exception rather than the rule then the exception IS the rule.