One Bad Apple spoils the whole bunch is the saying.

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1. agreed. and while it's interesting as a linguistic phenomenon, it's also interesting politically

it's often used by right-wingers in the context of defending the police, arguing that the police as a whole are great and we should support and respect them, even if there are "a few bad apples" (though they seem to be quite fervent in supporting the bad apples as well...).

yet these same people will denounce entire groups on the basis of the actions of a few. for instance, the gleefully slam a billion muslims base on the actions of a few violent extremists. you'll never hear them say it was just a few bad apples when it's a minority or other group lower in their idea of a social hierarchy.