Look, people say "Germany invaded France in 1941," "The Brazilians have won the World Cup," "the Japanese like raw fish," "Greeks dislike Turkey" etc. all the time, without batting an eye.
The first two aren't even generalizations (Germany is an entity and "The Brazilians" are an athletic team), so not really analogous. The third isn't terribly offensive to Greeks, I imagine. Whether or not the generalization is insulting makes a big difference.
But when someone makes a categorical claim that includes you, you have a conniption fit? Sorry, get over it. Unless they say "each and every American, bar none, criticizes fundamentalism in Muslim countries, but.." your complaint is an empty one.
So if someone were to say "Polish people are stupid" rather than saying "Each and every Polish person, bar none, is stupid" Polish people would not have a legitimate complaint?
Generalizations have the capacity to offend, whether there's any legitimacy to them or not. Is the earlier generalization regarding Americans a fair one? I don't think it is. I think it's a bit naive. They are discussing a very real problem, but an American talking about the problem would not naively characterize the hypocrites as Americans, instead referring to the proper faction within America. So to American ears, (or at least my ears) it grates a bit. It's like saying Muslims are extremists, when a less naive person might say that Qutbites are extremists.
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Look, people say "Germany invaded France in 1941," "The Brazilians have won the World Cup," "the Japanese like raw fish," "Greeks dislike Turkey" etc. all the time, without batting an eye.
The first two aren't even generalizations (Germany is an entity and "The Brazilians" are an athletic team), so not really analogous. The third isn't terribly offensive to Greeks, I imagine. Whether or not the generalization is insulting makes a big difference.
But when someone makes a categorical claim that includes you, you have a conniption fit? Sorry, get over it. Unless they say "each and every American, bar none, criticizes fundamentalism in Muslim countries, but.." your complaint is an empty one.
So if someone were to say "Polish people are stupid" rather than saying "Each and every Polish person, bar none, is stupid" Polish people would not have a legitimate complaint?
Generalizations have the capacity to offend, whether there's any legitimacy to them or not. Is the earlier generalization regarding Americans a fair one? I don't think it is. I think it's a bit naive. They are discussing a very real problem, but an American talking about the problem would not naively characterize the hypocrites as Americans, instead referring to the proper faction within America. So to American ears, (or at least my ears) it grates a bit. It's like saying Muslims are extremists, when a less naive person might say that Qutbites are extremists.