Has ripping on Americans become the new American pastime?

I’ve noticed that, both on teh interwebs and IRL, many Americans refer to their nationality in a cynically self-deprecating way. A lot of people seem to like to point their fingers at their red-blooded, flag-waving countrymen and find in them an example of crudeness, ignorance and everything in between, and then go on to make it clear that while such people make up the bulk of the US population they themselves are nothing like them and are the exception to the rule. They sit around in groups with their friends and pontificate about how the country is going to shit and that we deserve the bad name we have abroad, while actually doing little to improve it.

Now, there are a lot of things I’m not proud of about my country, but I’ve never been ashamed of being an American. I know that there are plenty of horrible people here but I don’t believe they make up the majority of our population. I think it’s a disservice to the many millions of genuinely good, compassionate and tolerant people here to categorize Americans that way.

What do you think about it? Do you see this happen a lot too?