Alright, I think I see where we're misaligning. You're making a distinction between "blame" and "responsibility" that would correspond to the difference between "Schuld" and "Verantwortung" in German, correct?
"Schuld" translates to either "blame" or "guilt" in English. In English, "guilt" is a formal legal or moral-philosophical term, while "blame" is more down to earth and slightly humorous, and implies that the party to blame is the cause of the bad thing that everyone is mad at him for.
"Responsibility," like "Verantwortung," in its origin means the state of being "answerable," or being the one that others seek out to put things right if there is an issue. In practice, we've used the term so sloppily in American English over the past century or so that we've pretty well lost that original meaning. For us now, to say that someone is responsible for something is generally just a pretentious way of saying that they are to blame for it or are guilty of it.
So when you say that A. is "responsible" for an offence his ancestor or compatriot committed, you are saying that A. is the person upon whose door the victims of the offence will be knocking when they come to seek recompense. But when we speakers of American English hear you say that, we understand you to mean that A. is personally to blame, or guilty, for the offense, and find that notion monstrous.
Would that be a fair assessment of our difference?
I'm talking about nations as legitimate (and entirely necessary!) structures for groups of people who do share a collective identity. It's not possible to escape it as an individual. Which is also an incentive to care for what the nation is actually doing, politically.
This does not of course make obsolete all other legitimate levels of analysis, where within the nation certain sub-groups are the true culprits for some things.
But for the outside world, you guys are America, all of you.
Just like you assumed all Germans share certain characteristics.
That being said, it was also absurd to call critics of the Biden regime in Germany, of which there are quite a lot, "anti-American", for not applauding the Ukraine war. A people and its current government are obviously different entities.
Alright, I think I see where we're misaligning. You're making a distinction between "blame" and "responsibility" that would correspond to the difference between "Schuld" and "Verantwortung" in German, correct?
"Schuld" translates to either "blame" or "guilt" in English. In English, "guilt" is a formal legal or moral-philosophical term, while "blame" is more down to earth and slightly humorous, and implies that the party to blame is the cause of the bad thing that everyone is mad at him for.
"Responsibility," like "Verantwortung," in its origin means the state of being "answerable," or being the one that others seek out to put things right if there is an issue. In practice, we've used the term so sloppily in American English over the past century or so that we've pretty well lost that original meaning. For us now, to say that someone is responsible for something is generally just a pretentious way of saying that they are to blame for it or are guilty of it.
So when you say that A. is "responsible" for an offence his ancestor or compatriot committed, you are saying that A. is the person upon whose door the victims of the offence will be knocking when they come to seek recompense. But when we speakers of American English hear you say that, we understand you to mean that A. is personally to blame, or guilty, for the offense, and find that notion monstrous.
Would that be a fair assessment of our difference?
Partly, I guess.
I'm talking about nations as legitimate (and entirely necessary!) structures for groups of people who do share a collective identity. It's not possible to escape it as an individual. Which is also an incentive to care for what the nation is actually doing, politically.
This does not of course make obsolete all other legitimate levels of analysis, where within the nation certain sub-groups are the true culprits for some things.
But for the outside world, you guys are America, all of you.
Just like you assumed all Germans share certain characteristics.
That being said, it was also absurd to call critics of the Biden regime in Germany, of which there are quite a lot, "anti-American", for not applauding the Ukraine war. A people and its current government are obviously different entities.
Two things can be true at the same time.