No love at all. If I were raised in another country, I’d feel the same about that country too. There are plenty of countries now that I’d move to if I were forced to move, America is not special. I suspect this goes for most people, who would, by default, be loyal to whatever country, race, and religion they grew up in.
What? You don’t think the US military is exceptionally large and powerful? My god, man, the Marine Corps–smallest of the four branches–is larger than most countries’ entire armed services.
All the people I love are in this country. The vast beauty of our geography is unparalleled. It has some amazing history and if you sort through the garbage there are some uniquely important and beautiful aspects of our culture and history that I fondly identify with. But the US has done (and continues to do) some horrible things. I’m also basically an anarchist, so I’m never going to love any government anywhere.
Let’s just leave it at “I’m quite fond of many parts of our culture and history, I have strong ties to the people and the land, and I hate the government, its foreign policy, and many parts of our culture and history.” The word “Love” is just not nuanced enough to describe my feelings for a region containing 330 million people, with a 400 year history and 3.8 million square miles of land.
I love the people inside the country, and outside of the country and don’t draw any distinction between them in terms of Love. If I was imprisoned by a hostile government and was rescued by ‘my country’, I would love kindness and devotion of the people who have rescued me, and all the people who were involved in that, but no, the love is not for a nation state (I feel such love is misplaced when this is done), it is for the good hearts of people, where ever they are. I also love Mother Earth, and the beautiful lands both inside and outside this nation state, I do feel she is a living entity who loves all her children, but again no love for any nation state.
Yes.
It ain’t perfect, but it’s mine. Like family, I’ll love it, get pissed off with it, fight for it, and generally do my best to take care of it.
I’m an American who not only loves his country but thinks it’s getting better and headed in the right direction. The main reason I’m in Thailand is the wife’s career, that plus I’ll live wherever the hell I damned well please. But I meet any number of American misfits over here who have left the US because they hate it for one reason or another. And they automatically assume any other American they meet over here left for the exact same reason they did and are positively gobsmacked to learn I think they’re full of shit.
The wife loves her country too, but she also loves mine and would not mind living in Hawaii again. Who knows? Maybe someday.
What I love about Canada is that loving it has always seemed somehow wrong. Not that there is more wrong with it than with your typical country, but nationalism seems more clearly phony here than in most places. At least to me. I suppose if its territory was attacked I would feel the usual emotions.
Born and raised in the United States, and I love my country. That being said, I am a Loyalist, and I wish my country had never come into existence in the first place.
Why would anyone attack it? How big an asshole would you even have to BE to do that?
I have hopes that we’ll straighten up once electric cars have mostly replaced gas/diesel. Until then, our foreign policy (as a direct result of the need for oil) is probably going to keep bothering me, like it has been for decades.
We did make the internet, though. Also, we’re pretty much the reason for the fact of Moore’s Law (and its corollaries), which offer the closest thing I know of to a real way out of the whole “Mother Nature or human nature can kill us just any ol’ damn time they please” thing.
So we’re evil, but at least we’re innovative, and sometimes innovation is the only thing that can save you.
My parents weren’t perfect but they tried hard, and I am grateful for all the good things I received due to the chance of being their offspring. Similarly, I am grateful to be a citizen of the United States, as I value many of the resulting freedoms and opportunities. Also by contrast to many other countries, it can be a very productive and fulfilling place to live.
But I don’t feel love in any sense. It is hard for me to make sense of that notion for any nation-state per se. I suppose I might have loved Pericles’ Athens had I been a male citizen (but not so much if I were a woman or a slave), even if they did kill Socrates for opening the minds of the city’s youth. I might love the physical aspects of a country, but that’s only a small part of a country’s identity.
In short, I can love a person, but not an institution.
Size =/= prowess.
Ahh, the old girth argument.
Because they hate our freedom. 
Because you hate Freedom!
My philosophy? The whole world sucks, but America sucks a little less. Love it out of necessity!
I do. Especially when driving around the West.
I quite simply don’t understand the concept.
Absolutely. As with any family, some of them make wonder if the dosage on their medication needs an adjustment but I will stick with them and hope they get better.