This article resonates with me -- anecdotally I think it's fairly well-understood among educated people that in modern times, variations within a population exc

This article resonates with me -- anecdotally I think it's fairly well-understood among educated people that in modern times, variations within a population exceed variations between populations, rendering broad-scale generalizations like the ones disparaged by this article to merit all the pejoratives cited. This article I think is part of a greater trend -- in a historical context, the very concept of identity is undergoing a shift, from the sort of old-world understanding where who you are is determined by your age, race, gender, nationality, sexual orientation, class indicators, and various other easily condensible physical characteristics, to a more mature understanding of identity based on choices, desires, connections with other human beings, aptitude, and opportunities -- particularly how we spend our time and money. More and more, life is becoming about freedom of choice -- no more arranged marriages, mandatory lifelong religious indoctrination, army service, etc. with most of the remaining limitations resulting from what I see as the final hurdle -- a lack of class mobility. If anyone knows any academics who have covered this idea of the shift towards complex, multifaceted identity, I'd be grateful for a reference. In fact I would go so far as to say that our current cultural and journalistic inclination towards these kinds of generalizations based on generational, racial, and gender-based lines, is quite toxic and serves to implicitly reinforce these tribalistic distinctions and impede social progress at scale. In fact this unintended consequence is one of my primary complaints about the cultural adoption of logical positivism, and why I've been gravitating more and more towards a philosophical platform based on existentialism as expounded by Frankl. Watching election coverage in the US, with their constant Nielsen-style characterizations of Black voters this and Millenials that, detracts and distracts from the objective values and platforms of the candidates. I definitely agree with the article's point about confirming preconceived prejudices, and look forward to the point where we can focus as a society more on objective, aspirational values rather than subjective generalizations and the status quo. I'm reminded of David Foster Wallace's quote -- "Sometimes words that seem to express really invoke."