Talk:Internationalism

Pejorative?

Is cosmopolitan a pejorative term? Never heard of that. On the wikipedia article about anti-patriotism[1] it's even referenced to as a term used to avoid bad connotations to "anti-patriot", along with "world citizenship"...~epix^{Say What?} 23:28, 31 August 2014 (UTC)

Well, I can't really answer your question fully, but I'll just add my 2 cents. In Tolstoy's "Patriotism, or Peace?" (written in the 19th century, I think), he says,

“”Each time my arguments have been met either with silence, or with a lofty suggestion that my ideas, as expressed, are Utopian utterances of mysticism, anarchism, and cosmopolitanism. Often my ideas are summed up, and then, instead of counter-arguments, the remark only is added, that "this is nothing else than cosmopolitanism!" As if this word, cosmopolitanism, had indisputably refuted all my arguments.

By contrast, the few times I've come across the word cosmopolitanism in my reading of modern books, I don't believe it had any negative connotations. Maybe it used to be pejorative, but now it's not? I have no idea.--Кřěĵ (ṫåɬк) 06:08, 2 September 2014 (UTC)

Interesting... well, the Online Etymology Dictionary says that cosmopolite "was revived from c.1800 with a tinge of reproachfulness (opposed to patriot)"[2]. I'll research more.~epix^{Say What?} 21:24, 2 September 2014 (UTC)

Also, "Rootless cosmopolitan" (безродный космополит) was a slur used in the Soviet Union to refer to "unpatriotic" Jews (or so I gather).--Кřěĵ (ṫåɬк) 18:55, 26 May 2016 (UTC)