In terms of the etymology question, I think the hypothesis is that the Greeks and western Europeans took a lot of slaves from the slavic regions, and thus the slavic word for themselves - as the people who speak words - was adopted by other countries as their word for a slave. I'm not a linguist so I'm not going to wade in on the truth of that, but again I genuinely think a lot of these things reflect worse on the perpetrators than the victims.
In theory it would be nice if there were no national stereotypes or prejudices, but I think that being able to be light-hearted in a fair way about neutral or positive stereotypes can help remove negative ones. If what you know about Russians is that they're tough, enjoy the cold, and drink a lot of alcohol, you're probably less likely to believe someone who comes up and tells you they're all autocratic and evil. It's much harder to hate the British as a people once you're resigned to the idea that we're a genteel nation of tea-drinking eccentrics whose main national pastime is mocking ourselves. Japan in World War Two was often thought of as an evil Imperialistic nation who savagely killed Chinese babies. Some Japanese soldiers did brutally kill Chinese babies of course, but that's not a reason for hating modern Japan - and we don't, they're now those cool asian geeks who made Pokemon as far as western culture is concerned. So yes, we shouldn't stereotype as all people are different, but sometimes in the short term positive or neutral stereotyping can strip away some of the negative mythos about a people or culture.
So basically, if it isn't obviously and directly pejorative or insulting we allow it under site rules. If anyone is feeling uncomfortable with something anyone's saying, contact a moderator or admin and they'll try and address your concerns or have a quiet word with the relevant poster.
OKAY
Random mumblings over. Sorry, that was probably a badly stated case, I'm massively sleep deprived and surprised I can even type properly.
BACK TO FUNNY PICTURES.
