Sauntering Vaguely Downward

I would say it's when you write those cultures *lazily*. Things can be written badly for any number of reasons, but when the reason is that you just didn't think that that foreign culture you're invoking was worth doing just as much research on as, say, the business of how to get the nuclear material off the reactor site and into the hands of the bad guys... that's when you're likely to churn out a bunch of half-remembered "facts" from what your mate in the pub told you about his 2-week holiday over there, mixed in with whatever cliches and stereotypes you've grown up with. And our jury says: "Nul points".