It's of course different when people are making statements about their own nation, or a place that they lived for a long time. But these distinctions are too subtle to matter on the internet. Others will react the same way they do to garden-variety flamebait, so the effects on the site are the same, so it's best to just not go there.

Also, while different, it's not necessarily benign—just more complicated.

Criticisms of national identity can't be topics of curious conversation on the public internet. A small, closed group could, but a large open group can't. 'Large' implies that someone is going to get activated, and 'open' implies that they can show up and comment—at which point game over.