I realize it's not very hip to be proud of the things we have accomplished in the United States, but that doesn't make them untrue or any less significant.

I'm not American and you should be proud of those achievements.

But when someone else criticizes some valid issues with the US and the reply is a sort of "did your country put men on the moon?", that's just ridiculous. Address the issue at hand.

Is it any more ridiculous than the claim that limitations on speech can somehow stop fascism? What is your bar for ridiculous claims about the possible outcomes of the freedom of (or limitations on) speech? A culture that feels it is free to express itself as it desires certainly seems like less of a breeding ground for fascism than a culture which has grown to fear outlier ideas and divergence from the norm.