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Comment by 83457 | Hacker News Reader

Is it wrong to say they look alike? There are just times where there is such commonality in a group due to genetic abnormalities and other factors that descriptions are more a fact than a stereotype.

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I would think that's more of a cognitive thing where if you don't normally spend time around people with Down's syndrome, the particular physical features that characterize Down's syndrome really stand out in a way that makes you perceive them as looking less distinctive as individuals. But once you get used to it, it becomes apparent that they look as different from one another as anyone else does.

Wrong? No. But definitely pointless and insensitive. Common genetic factors causing similar phenotypes isn't a novel, or even interesting, thought.

Is it pointless and insensitive for a scientific manual to indicate that all individuals with a certain genetic disorder look incredibly similar across races and genders?

My point is that there is a difference between stereotyping races/cultures/disabled and indicating highly correlated attributes in individuals with specific genetic/chromisonal abnormalities.

They don't look incredibly similar. They have common features that are not seen in the vast majority of others, which tricks your brain into not looking at their other features. It's the same as thinking Han Chinese people or Irish people look incredibly similar.

Is it bad for a textbook to point out how hypoxia kills brain cells during drowning? No. Is it tasteful to bring up at a funeral for someone who drowned? Also no.

If it's in a useful and tasteful context, discuss away. Otherwise, just don't be a chode.

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