I simply cannot write a 300 word comment without using generalizations like "the west."

Sorry but I don't see where the problem lies?  Only case I can see ... apart from giving someone directions for a journey...is if you're talking about the Western states of the USA and their history - and/or cowboy movies.

I myself never-ever use "the West" in political discourse because it's far too imprecise - it veils what I find most interesting: shifting alliances and political dynamics.  So I always state exactly which countries/cultures or groups of them I mean in each case. In current US political usage, AFAIK the term "west" sometimes means "the USA" alone, more often "US+UK+Poland", far more rarely US+EU... sometimes "the USA, Israel, the UK, Canada and Australia", in other cases it can mean "the USA, the UK, the Netherlands and Denmark" etc etc.

In cultural terms... dunno? Empiricism+ Positivism + Behaviourism+Corporate Capitalism??? = Anglosphere zone of European culture and recent derivates??

"East vs West" discourse =  nasty-nasty and highly geopolitical: here"west" is often used as a historical/cultural term for Christendom but means essentially post-Reformation i.e. Protestant churches in particular, sometimes + Roman Catholics if in an inclusive mood sometimes not and practically NEVER including the Orthodox churches and traditions so as to exclude Russia... only form of Greece desired to be "inclusivized" in the "West" is of course selected Readers' Digest editions of Great-Works-of-Classical-Thought, NOT including - Heaven forbid!" - anything even remotely Hellenistic, NeoPlatonic or Byzantine -- (yech, Asianism!!)

and the "East" = Islam?  Hinduism? Buddhism? Shintoism...All alike? Defined as "whatever isn't part of "the West"??

etc etc grrrrrr

"Ignoring moralities is always undesirable, but doing so systematically is really worrisome." Mohammed Khatami