Talk:Fatherland

This article is pretty far from the neutral point of view right now. Use of the word "fatherland" (or rather, its cognates in languages like German and Russian--though Russia also has "motherland") certainly does not by itself imply that anyone using it is an ethnic nationalist or even slightly supports ethnic nationalist views. The claim that it does imply that is, frankly, silly.

I'm not sure how to fix the article, because I'm not sure why we need an article about this term. --LMS

So delete it. I merely thought it was interesting to note which nationalities see their homelands as masculine or feminine. If that interest is biased, blow this article (and Motherland) away. However, I would appreciate it if you would tell me what non-neutrality I am showing -- am I for or against fatherlands?

Well, maybe there is a good reason to have an article called "fatherland" (and "motherland"? Didn't see that one); I'm waiting to hear one, and that's why I didn't just delete it.

What struck me as biased is the simple declaration, without further ado, that use of the word "fatherland" necessarily reflects an ethnic nationalist view. Why think so? It's not obvious to me. The fact that nationalists have used cognates of the term does not mean that only nationalists use the term or that its use indicates deeply-felt nationalism. Perhaps it often does; but surely, sometimes it doesn't.

And then, if you're not going to declare that, or if you're going to say that sometimes the use of the term reflects nationalism, that just by itself seems like pretty slender material on which to construct an encyclopedia article.

But! Surely there is a lot that can be said about the very notion of a fatherland and a motherland, and surely there has been a great deal of research into that by political scientists, historians, and/or linguists. Maybe you could do some research into that and report the results? --LMS