It's not bullshit, it's just reality, if i am used for all my life to say "i poliziotti hanno fatto un ottimo lavoro a risolvere la questione" (Masculine plural, used in language to refer to a group of people in which at least two different genders are present.) Translation: Police have done a good job to resolve the situation i am also gonna use "sei un poliziotto talentuoso" (Masculine singular) Translation: You are a talented police officer {The bold-italic indicate what gives the gender and if it's plural or singular} For talking in a text chat with someone i don't know the gender.

You see that if i am a Italian speaker i am gonna use masculine simply because i am used it since...well since i know how to speak and it's a hard change since in Italian you would have to change a bit more than in english your way of speaking.

Here a good source to understand better how it works in italian:

1- mascluine and feminine

2 - articles: how they define gender and amount

From your comments i can suppose you speak only english/english is your main language or you only speak languages that have the neutral pronouns