 | The following is a proposed Wikipedia policy, guideline, or process. The proposal may still be in development, under discussion, or in the process of gathering consensus for adoption. |
 | This page in a nutshell: Derogatisation of a grouping should be treated as derogatisation of an individual for the purposes of Wikipedia as the effect is the same. The delivery is generalised, but the reception is still personal. The problem with attacks is not the attack, but the injury, and generalised attacks aimed at religions or political beliefs or similar should be treated in the same way as if the attack had a specific username attached to it. Anybody who leaves Wikipedia because they aren't allowed to toss an amount of abuse around is not making sense. There are rules that may cover this but nothing specific. |
General attacks are a recurrent theme in content disputes. The comment usually goes along the lines of "The (blank or blanks) have taken over the whole encyclopaedia and are shaping it to their will!" or "The (blank or blanks) have formed a secret society and they are using it to shape Wikipedia to their will!"
These sort of comments illicit the exact same type of response as a personal attack, and that response is generally considered to be as well founded as a direct personal attack. Therefore, in the practical sense, it is the same thing and should be anticipated and treated in the exact same manner as personal attacks.
In the interests of reducing and resolving a dispute successfully, no editor may give a general attack, and therefore, as with personal attacks (WP:NPA) such a comment may be deleted immediately in its entirety by any editor, and all of the other applicable responses in line with NPA should be applied. It does not matter what the grouping is. If it is not content and context specific, it does not belong, and it should be policy to respond in the exact same way as if the same comment had been voiced to a specific individual.
In fact, this type of remark is more damaging because it gives the effect of a personal attack except spread equally over a crowd.