Hacker News Reader

OK, 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.

View on HN

That'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.

There is no evidence that writer has an anti-Semitic motivation

The other poster never implied that.

Saudi'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

Reply on news.ycombinator.com