In which I tackle a best-selling author/sex expert’s arguments on infidelity
It really rubs me the wrong way when so-called “experts” make overly generalized arguments about very serious topics, especially when the only stats they have to “back up” what they’re asserting are either purely anecdotal or “based on what I know.” I know everyone is prone to generalizing from time to time, but when you’re a renowned “expert” in your field, and you write books based on your “expertise,” and/or your writings are published at news outlets online and in print, and/or you travel around the country and/or world giving speeches on the topic you know so much about, it’s very important that you are specific and cite actual statistics, rather than just pull out facts out of your you-know-what. Ideally, people who read/hear such generalizations would resesarch the information they’ve been given to see if it’s got any basis in reality, but all too often people don’t do that. They just accept what they hear as truth – and as a result, “conventional wisdom” on a given topic is born, and it often takes years, sometimes even decades, to undo the damage that comes from such misconceptions.