How does calling a country full of people who are sad and desperate for a better life discriminate against them? This is the same kind of rhetoric I would hear someone use as an appeal to helping them. Hearing about these things makes me more kind and empathetic to the people involved - not less. It feels like you are trying to do a good intentioned thing here but maybe it’s misaligned to more malicious folks compare with how most people read these comments
> Saying we can’t negatively stereotype basically says you can only have positive opinions about this country
This logical fallacy is a False Dichotomy (also known as a False Dilemma or Black-and-White Fallacy).
This fallacy occurs when an argument incorrectly presents two opposing options as the only possibilities, when in fact a wide range of other options exist.
How it applies to the statement:
The statement "Saying we can’t negatively stereotype basically says you can only have positive opinions about this country" creates a false choice between:
Option A: Engaging in negative stereotypes.
Option B: Only having positive opinions.
This completely ignores the vast and reasonable middle ground, which is legitimate, specific criticism.
> This logical fallacy is a False Dichotomy (also known as a False Dilemma or Black-and-White Fallacy)
Fair enough. Saying "negative stereotyping of a whole group is racism" also permits neutral stereotyping not being racist.
That said, don't you see the problem with ruling out any negative stereotype? Populations have characteristics. Those characteristics can be judged positive, neutral and negative from a given perspective. Not every perspective that judges a population is racially animated. (And not all judging from afar is wrong. To say otherwise dismisses history and anthropology--which study people separated from us by the much-less bridgeable time--as practical fields.)
Dostoevsky and Turgenev consistently portrayed the imperial Russian peasantry in a baseline state of misery. That wasn't racism. It was--based on what I know--an accurate description of their state. I'm (in part) ethnically Indian. I don't think someone saying that Indians were despearate and divided when the East India Company landed would be speaking racially insensitively.
