STOP with the Homeland crap. We are the UNITED STATES !

[4bonhoffer]

Watching SEN. Mark Warner, who is outstanding, on face the nation. The amount of times he and the moderator use the term homeland to describe the United States is vomit inducing. Guess I’m showing my age, but for me the term Homeland brings up the Nazis. It was the Nazis who described Germany as the homeland. We are not the homeland, we are the United States. This all began years ago when Republicans said that anyone who was not wearing an American flag pin lapel on their suit was not sufficiently patriotic and the Democrats bought it, hook line and sinker. Stop it. just f’ing stop it.
It’s well past time for the Democratic Party to stand up to these chicken hawks. We are the United States ! The term United States is uniting. The term homeland is a Nazi vomiting inducing right wing propaganda term that no Democrat should ever use again.

[leftstreet]

1. DURec

[Blues Heron]

2. The homeland for this country is actually England

[txwhitedove]

29. Well, some of my relatives were already here.

[Dave Id]

48. Golly

all this time I thought this was Native Americans' homeland. Silly me. Most us, our families immigrated here from Europe and other parts of the globe.

[The Blue Flower]

3. I've always thought so

The first time I heard it was from W while rationalizing attacking a country that had nothing to do with the attack on 9/11. It was vomit-inducing even then.

[ybbor]

19. The first time he used it, I was like...

That’s nazi shit right there. I’ve never liked it. The homeland this is to are the indigenous people, the First Nations. I have always preferred the Canadian term. Dems should never use that term. When we get power back we should dismantle the DHS, and put FEMA, et al, back to their original positions.

[relayerbob]

22. Exactly my reaction

[luv2fly]

4. Doesn't seem very "united"

And hasn't for some time.

[ITAL]

5. Homeland even predated the Germans

Interestingly, I'm pretty sure it goes back to the early Zionist movements in the 19th century. Hitler and company borrowed the phrase from Jews!

[The Revolution]

53. Its from the 1660s

And is derived ultimately from Old English.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/homeland?utm_source=app

1660s, from home (n.) + land (n.). Old English hamland meant "enclosed pasture." Not in Century Dictionary (U.S., 1910); in more extensive use in U.S. after 2001

[Joinfortmill]

56. And, sadly, it stuck

[Ocelot II]

6. "Die Heimat," German for The Homeland, is now the name of Germany's far-right neo-Nazi political party

previously known as the NPD (Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands). The connotation of the German word was originally a love for or attachment to your native land without overtones of nationalism, but during WWII the Nazis attached it to a nefarious, nationalistic belief system that called for the persecution, and eventually extermination, of all those who posed a threat to the ‘purity’ of Germany’s ethnic identity. This is why the use of the English word "homeland" always had a Third Reich vibe, now made even clearer since the German NPD renamed itself.

[usonian]

7. Fatherland!

In English the German anthem is called “The Watch on the Rhine” and a repeated phrase is “The fatherland must be peaceful”.

I hate Nazis.

[gulliver]

8. Nazis used "fatherland," I thought

But I agree it is the same sort of jingoistic thing as "homeland." It's just one of many gifts George W. Bush gave Bin Laden and Islamism in general.

Would the citizens of the country be more united if many weren't using the word "homeland" to try to force some holier-than thou patriotism? I think so. It's similar to folks who believe themselves to be on the left using the word "unhoused" instead of "homeless." The word choices project vanity and create divisiveness. Language is important.

[Ocelot II]

9. They used "die Heimat," the homeland, more frequently.

Germany's neo-Nazi party, formerly the NDP, recently re-named itself Die Heimat as a tribute to the word's previous Nazi connotation. QED.

[gulliver]

12. Interesting. It does seem they used both a lot.

I learned something. I like the QED ending your post. Big fan of proofs.

[PCIntern]

10. I agree:

It’s reminiscent of fascistic militaristic films and tv. We never ever referred to ourselves this way until I believe, after 9/11. I could be wrong but it was the first time I noticed its use.

[AltairIV]

11. Thank you I completely agree.

Homeland = Nazi Germany, not that I would suspect republicans to make that connection at all.

[ColoringFool]

13. 100% CONCUR. But Hey---Dubya IS The Grandson Of Pro-Nazi Prescott.

[EarthFirst]

14. Hear! Hear!

Enough with re-branding jingoist propaganda as something that defines our nation as a whole..none of this defines the majority of us!

I’m with you!

[IbogaProject]

15. I hated that Nazi phrasing from its start

The Nazi element really pissed me off.

[Martin Eden]

16. How about "The Fatherland" instead?

Seems more appropriate with the fascists in control of our government.

[BattleRow]

39. How about Motherland?

Too woke?

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

41. Like "Mother Russia", maybe

Not too woke for Trump

[BattleRow]

45. For a guy who nods off in meetings,amazing he still "woke".

How do you say dog whistle in Russian?

[Jilly_in_VA]

65. Собачий свисток

or, in English transliteration, "sobachiy svistok"

[BattleRow]

66. And Trump said he wasn't going to learn that damn Spanish language!

Russian is Greek to me!!

[AZ8theist]

43. Too Russian.

Russia is currently just as bad as Nazi Germany was back 100 years ago.

[meow2u3]

49. England is the Motherland nt

[Martin Eden]

59. Mothers would not behave like these...

Muthuh-fuhkkkuhs

[paleotn]

17. Always sounded weird to me. Creepy even.

I've echoed the sentiments above since Dubya started throwing that around. We're actually a very large, very diverse country with several "homelands" if someone wants to call them that. Still sounds creepy.

[Uncle Joe]

18. Kicked and recommended

Thanks for the thread 4bonhoffer

[Celerity]

20. I also destest the use of ' the Heartland' to describe the rural Midwest. Even more when those living there are called

'The real Americans'.

[Iggo]

47. That was always White Supremacy dog whistle.

Of course now it’s a trumpet blast.

Because the nazis are in charge now.

[Callie1979]

21. There's nothing wrong with the term as they used it. "Fatherland" would be different

If you're an American the untied states IS your "homeland"
This is making a problem out of nothing.

[niyad]

34. See post 32.

[Callie1979]

51. Still much ado about nothing. Many words weren't used 25yrs ago.

We have much bigger fish to fry than making mountains out of molehills.
OUR Democrats using the term removes any supposed "hidden meaning" desired by the Right wingers anyway.

[niyad]

61. So fighting psychological manipulation and propaganda is "making

mountains out of molehills"? Got it.

[Callie1979]

63. Your words. Never considered this word anything other than what it IS.

And I've never heard any concern from any friends
And again, taking the term away from the GOP weakens whatever "manipulation" they were attempting. I can see it now; someone writes a story decrying the use of "homeland". It'll be a hard hitting GOP ad within a WEEK. Stop taking their bait!

Should the Dept of Homeland Security have been called the Dept of United States Security? It passed with most Democrats voting for it.

I think we should spend our energy on finding out why people who voted for Biden in 2020, voted for trump in 2024; THOSE are the people who took away a Pres Harris term. And those reasons are what need to be dealt with NOW before the Nov elections. And it seems like with every week that goes by we're going to make the same mistakes we did in '24 & it's terrifying.

[QueerDuck]

23. German "fatherland" and Russia's "motherland"... both make me cringe...as "homeland" does.

[QueerDuck]

24. Actually, the only time I don't mind the word "homeland" is in the closing lyric of Edelweiss.

[rhiannon55]

68. I agree

That song is beautiful!

[aggiesal]

25. When GW McIdiot created the Department of Homeland Security I thought ...

this is so Russian.
But Nazi works just as well.

[Clouds Passing]

26. Homeland WAS Nazi Germany

[Kablooie]

27. Mainland is a better term.

It’s Nazi neutral.

[Martin Eden]

62. That would exclude Alaska and Hawaii

We've had the NSA (National Security Agency) since 1952. DHS was an overblown reaction to 9/11.

Get rid of DHS, and coordinate the necessary functions in a modernized efficient DHS.

[BidenRocks]

28. News radio in the car.

The guy is going on and then he not quoting, but brings the 'Motherland' into the news report.

I yelled my typical "Bullshit!" at the radio.

An legitimate war being led by media cheerleaders.

KNX News radio is owned by See BS. I feel the slant right.
Also, any fire victims who wish to bash our Dems in Ca. gets more airtime. (LA)

I called them on it last year!

[Dave Bowman]

30. Like a wise man once said:

[Scubamatt]

31. Thank you for this great post

Words and names DO matter; that's why propoganda-ists carefully craft names, and why Trump uses demeaning nicknames. You are not alone in your reaction. After 9/11, when they created the DHS, I ad the same reaction - this is Nazi sounding propaganda. But very few objected then, and now the country has been acculturated to that very troubling term. It makes it much easier to demonize political opposition when they are characterized as attacking "the Homeland."

[JHB]

32. That term is not part of American political terminology prior to Bush

You won't find it in any presidential speech before Heckavajob Bushie. Not Reagan, not Kennedy, not FDR, not TR, not Lincoln, not Washington.

It is a right-wing, white supremacist term inserted into our national language during a time of high anxiety and feeling of threat, just as in the 1950s, inserting "under God" into the Pledge of Allegiance and making "In God We Trust" the official motto, elevating it to the far more historically-grounded (and secular) "E Pluribus Unum" as a talisman to ward off the forced-atheism Soviets.

I really can't stand it when our leaders adopt the terminology of the Right. They think they're being reasonable, but have blinded themselves to how it demoralizes people and contributes to support spalling off on our left flank.

[SunSeeker]

40. Exactly. nt

[niyad]

33. Thank you. It bugs the hell out of me as well.

[AllaN01Bear]

35. ding. this.

usa. usa. usa.

[slumcamper]

36. Absolutely nailed it! You connected it/us to its insidious nature. N/T

[llmart]

37. I agree with your sentiment and have thought that since 9/11.

However, maybe you should send your rant to Mark Warner's email address. He may not know that a great number of us Democrats object to it and why. Sometimes even Democrats are out of touch with everyday Democrats.

[SunSeeker]

38. K & R

[NHvet]

42. I agree

The word is like vomiting my mouth. This country isn't anyone's homeland other than the indigenous peoples.

[Americanme]

44. I agree!

"Homeland" has always made me think of nazis. The Homelander character on "The Boys" acts like a nazi. CPAC designed their stage like a nazi rune in 2021. Bovino dressed like a nazi. Many of their idiots have made nazi salutes in public. Too much nazi for me. I will not refer to America as the homeland.

[Iggo]

46. "Homeland Security" has been a masturbatory term for American Nazis since day one.

And it was always obvious that’s what it was intended to be. Again, from day one.

[patphil]

50. the word "homeland" has much too much garbage attached to it to make it a descriptor of the United States.

We are Americans, and we represent people from virtually every nation, religion, and ethnic group in the world.
In that respect, "homeland" is more properly a reference to the planet itself.

The only group that can accurately use that term in reference to the United States is the Native Americans, and even then it would go well beyond our national boundaries.

[Raftergirl]

52. I've felt this way since they started using it. Sickens me.

[Joinfortmill]

54. Yup, too 'Nazi like' for me.

[MineralMan]

55. Next Step Is Calling It the Fatherland.

[spanone]

57. I agree 100%

FUCK THAT SHIT.

[The Wizard]

58. If my memory serves me well

Germans call it the Father Land.
The Russians call it Mother Russia.

[flashman13]

60. Well said 4bonhoffer.

[Marvin Jones]

64. Amen!

It is overdue--https://marvindjones.blogspot.com/2005/02/words.html

[Renew Deal]

67. You're right

and it seemed like the term really emerged after 9/11. I always thought it was Germanic and didn't understand why it was used. I'd love to stop hearing people use it. Maybe the next Democratic administration can correct it. Have DHS become DAS, which is also Germanic lol.