I'm sure he's not a monster. Thing is, Americans find it very hard to see us as anything other than monsters. It's exhausting to try and have a conversation when the interlocutor is ready to terminate it at any point because s/he decides that you are either evil or brainwashed. (To me, that's where the real prejudice lies - the inability to imagine other people as moral, not just intellectual, equals)
I should also say that the distinction between "criticizing government" and "criticizing people" is routinely not observed, even by Democrats. When Obama was making a case for the TPP, one of the main argument he gave was "The TPP would let America, not China, lead the way on global trade". Zero-sum language like this sends a signal to Americans that if doing something X is bad for this other group of humans, then that's an argument in favor of doing X, not (crazy thought!) an argument against doing it. That's how you get to where we are now where prominent Democrats like Chuck Schumer can say "we must be united in our fight against the Chinese" and not a single American, liberal or conservative, even took issue with that kind of language.
I should also say that the distinction between "criticizing government" and "criticizing people" is routinely not observed, even by Democrats. When Obama was making a case for the TPP, one of the main argument he gave was "The TPP would let America, not China, lead the way on global trade". Zero-sum language like this sends a signal to Americans that if doing something X is bad for this other group of humans, then that's an argument in favor of doing X, not (crazy thought!) an argument against doing it. That's how you get to where we are now where prominent Democrats like Chuck Schumer can say "we must be united in our fight against the Chinese" and not a single American, liberal or conservative, even took issue with that kind of language.