Your post also seems like a wild generalization, to be honest.
I spent some time living abroad in the Bush years, in a variety of places where Westerners almost never go. (I hate the beaten path...if I can see photos of it on Flickr, I don't need to go there myself. That should help you figure out where all I've been ;) )
Based on the anti-American sentiment I saw there, then, anti-American sentiment in many parts of the world would not at all surprise me now.
And I didn't sew any flag on my backpack, but I sure didn't tell people I was an American; I speak another language well enough (and with an indistinct accent) that I usually told people I was from a non-Western country entirely.
If for nothing else, the haggling. Just passing as a non-Westerner got my prices in North Africa cut by 90% every. single. time.
I spent some time living abroad in the Bush years, in a variety of places where Westerners almost never go. (I hate the beaten path...if I can see photos of it on Flickr, I don't need to go there myself. That should help you figure out where all I've been ;) )
Based on the anti-American sentiment I saw there, then, anti-American sentiment in many parts of the world would not at all surprise me now.
And I didn't sew any flag on my backpack, but I sure didn't tell people I was an American; I speak another language well enough (and with an indistinct accent) that I usually told people I was from a non-Western country entirely.
If for nothing else, the haggling. Just passing as a non-Westerner got my prices in North Africa cut by 90% every. single. time.
Hah, maybe they just liked your money!