You're not proud to be a citizen of your country?

It's like two paragraphs.

Did I say it offends me? By "flag waving" and "patriotic comments", I mean comments that are excessively patriotic. It's arrogance and people's sense of superiority that offends me.

I am...sort of. I'm not blindly patriotic or arrogant though.

No one criticizes you when you aren't important. There is also the importance of USA on the demise of communism, the European left doesn't forgive that.

the reason is very simple, people can only say what they hate about the country if they know something about the country. most people know more about usa as they know about peru so what do you expect people saying against the political situation, the behaviour of the people living in peru or whatever if they don't know much about it?

you will also find more negative posts about germany, france, uk and russia as about hungary, lithuania, peru and tanzania.

the reason why they say more bad as good stuff about usa is because many people on this planet dislike the usa or at least don't really like "the american way of life". but that doesn't mean that they would like peru more, just that they know not much about peru^^

Exactly!! I get the feeling that some Americans don't know what the difference is between loving your country and being blindly patriotic about everything it does and stand for.

I'm getting this from a lot of people so far. A lot of people are saying that America is big and well known so it gets the most attention, good or bad.

But what I'd like to know is why do those with negative things to say feel the need to express their opinion when that opinion was not asked for. For example, if someone posts that they love the USA and wouldn't want to live anywhere else it is very likely that someone will reply with some kind of example as to why the USA is flawed. I want to know what compels these people to do this.

There's nothing wrong with being Patriotic. But when it goes too far... it gets bad, fast.

Couldn't you argue that nobody asked for their opinion either? Saying something like that off-topic would come off as very arrogant, so that response would be completely justified. Wouldn't be surprised if it came from somebody who had never set foot outside their own country too.

I should have specified that it was excessive patriotism.

I agree.