In the Pittsburgh shooting thread, people discussed nationalism. I thought this would be a good topic for discussion because it's a pretty universal political phenomenon and we all have encountered it at some point.
Generally, I think it's not fair to lump in nationalism with fascism or related fuckery. It's possible to think your nation is the best without hating other nations or peoples in the process. It's just that...it kind of tends to end up being that even if on paper it's entirely possible to think that your blob of land is better than that blob of land.
A nation is a psychological construct as much as it is a physical thing, it's social and emotional connection with other people from your nation. Even in large places like Russia or the US, people presume a connection between two people from the same nation while presuming a contrary separation between people over a border even if they live within walking distance. Maybe in Iron Curtain Berlin this was true, but generally in most people there's enough cultural and social commerce (and monetary commerce) that a person on the Texas border is way more similar to someone from Mexico than they are to someone from Hawai'i or Maine. But there remains a nation in people's minds and it means something.
That generally seems to be an extension of tribalism. When you look at other places, extended family is a big thing and nations are really just hyper extended families. There's an assumption that someone from your nation might not share all your values or be the same as you, but at base they have a nation-ness about them that links you and them, in a similar way to smaller city or tribal connections do. The problem with nationalism is that it ends up being placed in opposition to something else. My guys are better than your guys because your guys smell and are shit. Well would you look at that, in making my guys look better I've had to say something hateful about your guys. That's a real temptation for nationalist thought, and when we look at ultra nationalists the first thing you notice is not how much they love their country, but how much they hate people who aren't from their country (or racial group, or social class etc etc ad nauseam).
So is hatred inherent to nationalism? I suppose it can be said to be there, but it's not something people need to enact in their lives. It's just that normally people tend to the easiest and simplest interpretation of everything, and that usually ends up with hating other nations to aggrandize your own.