Happy Independence Day week. Tomorrow we will celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence, history's greatest breakup letter, humanity's finest figurative middle finger flipped to, at the time, the most powerful nation on Earth. Well, now we are the most powerful nation on Earth. Enjoy your pretentious tea, you scraggly-mouthed limeys. But American greatness is something some Americans cannot support. They don't like America dominates in most everything that matters. In order to sound like the same pretentious gits whose pasty bums we kicked in two wars, they write OpEds and create videos in hopes of leaving so many proud Americans with frowny faces. Like this recent video from the New York Times Opinion:

Plot twist: publicly bemoaning about your nation actually proves your nation is rather great. Think about it. Americans can and frequently take steaming piles all over America. The worst that happens to them is another American, such as myself, tells them they're wrong.

It usually ends there. The New York Times will not be boycotted anymore than it already is. More people are not going to use the NYT to line the cages of their hopeless hampsters anymore than they already are. Sure, the tweet got ratioed more easily than cellulite attacks a feminist's brave and beautiful thighs, but so what? In a week, no one will think about The New York Times running a hit on America.

Because Americans have the freedom to run hits on America with zero real-world consequences. There's no risk involved in doing so. It isn't brave to call America crappy. Anyone can do it.

Incidentally, when was the last time you saw a "CHINA ISN'T THAT GREAT, THO!" OpEd video coming out of China? Remind me, when was the last time you saw a "Venezuela Gives me the Case of the Sadz" piece out of the nation whose people are now dining on their own pets?

"Oh but Courtney" I hear you say, "those countries are known to be complete pits of wallowing despair despite what Bernie Sanders tries saying between his afternoon sessions of rubbing linament oil all over his knobby knees."

Fair point. So let's move onto a first world nation, like Britain. What happens to British citizens who speak or write critically of their country either as a whole, or what their government is up to? Let's check in:

• The UK Wants You to Snitch if You See a Sexist Stereotype in Advertising
• Tommy Robinson Arrested, Jailed for Reporting on Muslim Rapists
• UK Police Warn People Not to Speak Out Against Terrible Treatment of Alfie Evans
• UK Labor Leader: Government Should Occupy Private Homes To 'Solve Poverty'
• BRITAIN: Radio Host Katie Hopkins Demands Government Stop Terrorism. Gets Fired.

Most of the critical pieces about Britain don't seem to be coming from Britain at all. But from... ding, ding, ding, AMERICA!

Britain isn't an outlier. Germany also keeps a tight leash on its people speaking out against Germany:

• Germany is Officially Silencing ‘Hate Speech.’ And It’s Flat Out Scary.
• Germany Threatens Facebook: Censor ‘Hate Speech’ or Face $50 Million Fine…

We used to write about Germany a lot. But anymore, their government problems are no longer news. Their people are hardly allowed to speak out against what is happening to them. And it sounds like social media, such as Facebook, is helping to keep those who do want to speak out, silenced.

Listen, I'm not on board with the love it or leave it when it comes to America or really anything else. The New York Times is free to criticize something without abandoning it. As I'm free to criticize anything I belong to without leaving it. But there is a special kind of irony in painting America as a so-so place when people are risking their lives to get here.

There's also a special kind of irony when the same people who call America terrible or even "just okay" are the same people who demand everyone else in the world be allowed into America, no questions asked.

So sure, go ahead and mock the country you call home. Call it terrible. Call it mediocre. But know that calling it anything other than great, without anyone knocking on your door to ask you questions about how you really feel, is something one can only do in America.

Happy Independence from Government Demanding You Toe the Line Day.

~Written by Courtney Kirchoff