I find it extremely strange to be "proud of your country" since you likely didn't choose your country and didn't make it what it is. It's like being proud of your football team winning even though you did nothing but watch it on the telly. I guess it might be because I live in a completely different culture (Scandinavia) because to me, no matter how much anyone tries to change my mind, I cannot see any difference between American patriotism and standard nationalism. I know the words are not
supposed to have the same meaning but watching patriots(?) chant "USA! USA! USA!" at happenings like a rocket launch I fail to see it. I get a bad feeling in my stomach, like I get when seeing something real bad happening, like when the twin towers fell on 9/11 or looking at cops killing a black person, both not only awful but clear harbingers of bad things in the future. I have tried discussing this with other people but locally they just repeat the same feeling and Americans tend to react like when someone start a discussion of gun control. I guess I'm saying it is rather creepy to me.
Edited because you have to be real careful how you talk about this or it will devolve quickly.