It seems that you’re missing the point of the article here. The author clearly states that one’s experiences strongly inform his or her opinions, which are, to the person who holds that opinion, valid. The author, in that segment, was putting forward a combination of a hypothetical situation (women who grew up around jocks that took their consent for granted) and his own experiences (the shy but well-intentioned nerds he hung around with). You’ve had your experiences, and the author’s had his experiences. They would both seem valid to you and him because they, despite their stark differences, are both valid. The author writes about how controversy has erupted around r/atheism as its members and visitors gleaned different but equally valid experiences while positing that the other side’s experiences are clearly wrong and invalid. Your experiences seem to have been particularly traumatic for you and I understand that the author’s semi-generalization of his own experiences could have made you feel like he was invalidating your experiences. However, it would be counterproductive and ill-informed of you to generalize your experiences because, as you have said, other people would have had different experiences.
It seems that you’re missing the point of the article here. The author clearly states that one’s experiences strongly inform his or her opinions, which are, to the person who holds that opinion, valid. The author, in that segment, was putting forward a combination of a hypothetical situation (women who grew up around jocks that took their consent for granted) and his own experiences (the shy but well-intentioned nerds he hung around with). You’ve had your experiences, and the author’s had his experiences. They would both seem valid to you and him because they, despite their stark differences, are both valid. The author writes about how controversy has erupted around r/atheism as its members and visitors gleaned different but equally valid experiences while positing that the other side’s experiences are clearly wrong and invalid. Your experiences seem to have been particularly traumatic for you and I understand that the author’s semi-generalization of his own experiences could have made you feel like he was invalidating your experiences. However, it would be counterproductive and ill-informed of you to generalize your experiences because, as you have said, other people would have had different experiences.