History rhymes!
It does - the same or similar causes create the same or similar effects over and over.
But in this case, its really just the same old, same old.
Americans have been getting hit by anti-Americanism continuously since there was a United States. At the same time the US exerted an irresistable draw to, sometimes, the same people.
Its an odd situation, but there we go. People are complicated, and not a lot bother to try to understand their own minds.
In countries with fewer freedoms, some political factions tend to publish generalized or exaggerated American flaws to distract their own populations from domestic discontent.