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This is great, but I take issue with the phrase "the Saudis". There are about 33 million Saudis. I doubt most of them had anything to do with this, and I think
by jstanley 8y ago
This is great, but I take issue with the phrase "the Saudis".
There are about 33 million Saudis. I doubt most of them had anything to do with this, and I think it's important to maintain a mental distinction between the government of a country and its people.
- YjSe2GMQ 8y agoI think people generally understand that it's a dictatorship, referred to as "the Saudis". Much like actions of ISIS are not indicative of what your average Muslim neighbor is up to.
- GordonS 8y agoOK, but you'd presumably take issue if a headline said "The Muslims" rather than "ISIS". I agree that people generally understand that in this case the headline refers to the Saudi government - but OTOH, this kind of "generalisational" language can perhaps be a form of propaganda, or at least subconsciously change some readers' perception with constant exposure.
- sparky_z 8y agoThat's completely different though. That's like referring to the Israeli government is a headline as "The Israelis" vs "The Jews". They're both overbroad when taken literally, but the former is standard shorthand that is clear from context and the latter strongly suggests that writer has an anti-Semitic motivation.
- clwg 8y agoSaudi's refer specifically to the House of Saud, which is the ruling family of Saudi Arabia, if another family was ruling it would be {insert family name here} Arabia
- subway 8y agoIt's also the family name of the vile people dictating the behavior of the government.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- ignoramous 8y agoSorry for being pendantic but Al-Saud or 'the Saudis' are literally the ruling family: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Saud https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Saud The 32m+ citizens are called 'Saudi Arabians'... calling them 'Saudis' is, erm, informal at best, lazy at worst?
- raverbashing 8y agoWell Americans like to call themselves "Americans" even if that technically refers to all of the inhabitants of the American Continent (from North, Central and South America), so...
- arcticfox 8y ago> Well Americans like to call themselves "Americans" even if that technically refers to all of the inhabitants of the American Continent (from North, Central and South America), so... Technically, they're overwhelmingly correct, and your definition is in fact the uncommon one. For example, see the primary definition for both adjective and noun usages in the Oxford Dictionary of British & World English (not even US English). https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/american https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/american
- graeme 8y agoThat's the common way of referring to a government, especially in the security/spying sphere. e.g. "Did the Americans know about Pearl Harbour?" "Why did the Soviets develop the atom bomb"? "Why do the British maintain a nuclear deterrent?" "How will the Australians react to the detention of one of their nationals by the Chinese?"
- Waterluvian 8y agoInteresting. What's the right word to use when describing the members of the House of Saud? That being said, it's still pretty normal to speak like this. Americans, Russians, Chinese.
- nostromo 8y agoIt’s pretty common to use: The Saudis = the Saudi Family Saudi Arabians = all Saudi citizens
- MagicPropmaker 8y agoThe AP Style Books lists "Saudi" and "Saudis" as the proper way to talk about people from Saudi Arabia.
- empath75 8y agoThe Saudis are a family. They happen to run a kingdom called Arabia. People who aren’t in the family aren’t saudis, they’re Saudi Arabians.
- selimthegrim 8y ago“House of Saud”
- rdiddly 8y agoWell you can start making that distinction yourself by calling them Arabs, since Saudi is just an adjective meaning "pertaining to Saud." Arabia will be there forever, but since 1932 and until the house of Saud goes down the toilet like it deserves to, Arabia is temporarily a Saudi place.