I remember when this became a "thing" again after 2003-onward when animosity toward the US was running high. I travelled around Europe, the Middle East, and Afr

I remember when this became a "thing" again after 2003-onward when animosity toward the US was running high. I travelled around Europe, the Middle East, and Africa pretty extensively then, staying in hostels or using Couch Surfing (both hosting and surfing). Never once ran into a fellow American traveler who flag-jacked, although we all would share jokes about doing so, with a wink and a nod. I saw the occasional Canadian flag on a backpack, but from my interactions they were all convincingly Canadian. More often I saw travelers from the world over with flags from all the places they visited on their bags. I always suspected those Americans who actually flag-jacked were of the breed that visited Western-European capitals via tour-bus, dressed like they were on safari, and loudly compared everything to how it existed "back in the States".