Interestingly I think that anti-government paranoia in the US is largely itself fed by all those movies in which some corrupt US government agency turns out to be the villain.
As a fun exercise, count the number of movies and TV shows in which the CIA is shown in a positive light. The FBI often is, the military usually is, the CIA almost never. Heck, the CIA has such a bad name in American movie land that on the odd occasion they want to show a good American spy (e.g. Die Another Day) they'll put 'em in the NSA instead despite the fact that the activities depicted are much more CIA-like than NSA-like.
Either that or the fact that one minute the President swears to defend the constitution and then the next minute orders unconstitutional wiretaps, torture, invasion, etc.
Or maybe that the country exists because of government tyranny.
Or because the government arrests people just for showing up to the wrong meeting.
Or because they have studied International Relations at Cambridge University and have an understanding of world history. (that one is probably quite rare, but its very effective).
As a fun exercise, count the number of movies and TV shows in which the CIA is shown in a positive light. The FBI often is, the military usually is, the CIA almost never. Heck, the CIA has such a bad name in American movie land that on the odd occasion they want to show a good American spy (e.g. Die Another Day) they'll put 'em in the NSA instead despite the fact that the activities depicted are much more CIA-like than NSA-like.