Country X is all bad

One of the most common things I hear in Skypeland is that "Country X is all bad" or "Country Y is the best in the world and has no faults". People say things like "Group A never does anything bad" or "Group B is the most evil in the world". You can can substitute almost any choice for the variables X, Y, A and B: Americans, Jews, Muslims, Japanese, Chinese, French, Germans, English, Spanish, Arabs, Christians, Indians, Catholics, etc. I am immediately suspicious of someone who makes some sort of claim like this. How is it possible that the USA is the best nation in the world and has never done anything wrong? How is it reasonable to state that the USA is the most evil nefarious country on planet earth and therefore all Americans deserve to be killed? How can one say that all Muslims are terrorists, or no Muslim has ever killed another Muslim or done anything improper or unjust or unethical, and expect to be taken seriously? And yet, over and over, I hear people make these statements, and then argue vehemently to defend them. These kinds of absolute statements, all evidence to the contrary, make the person presenting such claims loose all credibility. It is interesting how often people will retreat to such positions, even those who advertise themselves as fair and just and reasonable and rational, or even adopt some air of intellectual superiority and presume to lecture the rest of us from their exalted positions. What it does, is expose some of the interesting features of human nature...