Even though they pop up on all boards from time to time, I find posts like this "pin drop" thing real strange... I've also noticed they often come from people who have not travelled much and instead pass along those unverifiable tales in the hopes of stirring patriotism, not a good kind of patriotism either...
Americans seem to have a big chip on their shoulder about being hated worldwide, not sure why. In my experience that is really far from true !
I've travelled and lived abroad a fair bit, and
AFAIK, the only people that HATE americans are working for terrorist groups in the middle east. Nobody else gives much of a rat's a$$ where you are from, they might dislike your government for its actions abroad (most of which you never hear about domestically), but rarely *you* personally. People are people, they like or dislike *invididuals*, nothing to do with nationality. If you're a nice guy and moderately aware of what goes on outside the US borders, chances are you won't be disliked at all and might get involvedin some interesting conversations. Now if you come along waving a flag and thumping your chest with that "Pin drop" attitude and zero knowledge of geopolitical matters, all bets are off...
I'm also amused it -invariably- degenerates to France bashing, as if France was the great enemy of US idealogy... It's ridiculous... Most recent french bashing was caused by their opposition to the war in Iraq. Excuse me, but does Iraq still look like a good idea to anyone ? not saying we should leave or stay, but if you could go back a few years, would you do it again ? kinda sounds like they were right on that front (no WMD, thousands of lives, more trouble than it's worth) and the bashing looks more like sour grapes more than rational thought !
I kinda wish most of my US compatriots would start giving less of a $hit about what the rest of the world thinks of them and get out more to see for themselves ! Hard to do with the dollar in the toilet though !