C++ doesn't have generics. It has templates, which is essentially a macro system—there is no type checking, and a new instance of the code is generated at the s

C++ doesn't have generics. It has templates, which is essentially a macro system—there is no type checking, and a new instance of the code is generated at the source/AST level for every combination of template parameters. If that is your only experience with "generics" then it's no wonder that you have a negative opinion of them, but that is no reason to oppose the implementation of proper generics in other languages. Java has true generics with interfaces and such but they were retrofitted into a language with a less expressive type system, so there are gaps in the implementation. A better example would be traits in Rust, or typeclasses in Haskell.