The thing about this that bothers me the most (ok maybe not the most... but its troubling), we have gotten to a point that we are more free to criticize our own government than a foreign government (unless it is about this topic).
That's true, nobody's ever invented an entirely new word for when you criticize the U.S. government, but you start criticizing the Israeli government and all of a sudden you're "aNtIsEmItiC"...
Nah, I just think that in the 21st century, people shouldn't invade a country, kill all their children, and steal all their land.
Right, that is the problem. That word (rightly so) carries a lot of weight.
But instead it has turned into a word that is used to try to shut down any criticism. Things get labeled as such, schools and others have a zero acceptance policy and here we are.
I have never seen a school having an "un-patriotic" policy. I would say even the opposite, they encourage getting involved in the government and making your voice heard.
I can say and criticize a lot of crap about my government without worrying about being kicked out of school or anything like that. The most I may be called is "unpatriotic" but I think most people here (maybe at least until recently) recognized that that was one of our core freedoms.
The same is not true if I tried to criticize one foreign government in particular.
Like, how that ever became OK is insane to me.