The usual TV broken record stuff. TAT always lies; tourism is down in reality; Russians and Chinese spend far less money (so they are not worth having). Blah blah.

More Lao tourists coming over here than Germans and Swedish ?

Must be kidding !

Opinions are based on one's environment. If I judged Thais by my village I would say that most are friendly people, sociable, polite but improvident. On the other hand a hard core of about 10 families are drunken, Anti-social "neighbours from hell". Which are the true Thais? I guess both are.

Bangkok, Pattaya, Phuket, are not representative of Thailand, but that is what most tourists see. They are the public face of Thailand, complete with scams and dangers.

These areas are the "hard core" of all that is bad in Thailand.