It is a little curious how many Americans react to what should be relative statements, or statements of opinion or subjective experience. These relative statements are taken as normative statements, and if the listener's opinion or experience varies, the listener gets prickly, as if the person making the statement is moving to encroach upon the listener's position and declare the listener's position invalid.
This reaction exists for good reason. Many people do in fact posit their opinions and subjective experiences as normative markers of the real. And of course the more privileged the individual, the more this is a default position.
So there is this constant boiling action, this constant movement of relative statements, angling for a higher position in the normative hierarchy. A constant leapfrogging. A constant transfer of aggressive energy. Etc.
