[quote]I will never understand individuals who come to this country for a better life (be they refuge seekers or economic migrants) and then badmouth/revile their new countrymen as a nation.[/quote]
I wonder how to put this?
It is quite drastic to use this analogy, but I do this to illustrate the principle, so let me put it this way:
Had I been a German, were alive in Hitler's days, and if I had been in the Nazi army, should I have felt a morale boost if Hitler had come visiting?
And if I did not, would I have been an unpatriotic German?
Were those Germans unpatriotic who disagreed with Hitler, and spoke or wrote against him?
I may be wrong, but I think loyalty to humanity is above loyalty to one's country.
Some of us have the means to travel to the country of our choice, and bestow upon our child-to-be the status of being born in a particular country, but our own birth in a particular place is an accident over which none of us has had control.
When one becomes a citizen of a place, for whatever reasons, one does not sell one's right to hold or voice opinions that may displease the government.
Badmouthing is something I dislike, of anyone. It is not good manners, it is not civil, but was I badmouthing?