Mobe613: Maybe I can shed a little light on your evident confusion over people’s reactions in this thread.
In your original post, you wrote:
” Now, i understand that sometimes this is done for safety purposes, and that seems reasonable. However, it seems to me like sometimes many yiddin choose to wear a baseball cap even when there is no sakanna and they just don’t want to be identified as a frum jew. This often happens when young men (or men of any age really) go out in public places that are outside of where frum yiddin usually are, like during a hike in a state park or while on vacation outside the NY area, usually this is also accompanied by wearing clothes that are not usually worn by bnei torah at home (ie like khaki pants or a tshirt/polo shirt.”
This implies that the only conceivable reason you can come up with for a Jew to be wearing a baseball cap/sports garb is “sakana.”
You then go on to address the idea of “young men or men of any age really” donning the garb in question in order to go hiking or on vacation, but you take them to task for this because they are not in a makom sakanah.
In other words, you do NOT allow for reasonable use of sports clothing; on the contrary, you imply that the only possible explanation for it is the wearer’s desire to appear non-Jewish.
Again, READ YOUR OWN POST. You do NOT state that you believe leisure activities to be a reason to don leisure clothing. You specifically state only two possible reasons that–in your estimation–apply to the situation:
1. The person in question is ashamed of looking Jewish.
2. The person in question is preparing for the possibility of doing an aveirah without being recognized as Jewish.
Even when DaasYochid stated, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, that perhaps people don’t want their yarmulkes to blow off, you only conceded, grudgingly, that perhaps this is the explanation SOME of the time.
THIS is why people here are taking you to task. You have already decided that you know the Real True Reason why you saw a Jew in baseball cap. You phrase it in the form of a question, but you are essentially telling us that you already know the answer and would simply like everyone to agree with you so that we can go on to discuss the crisis du jour without having to haggle over whether it is in fact a crisis to begin with.
Most people here seem to think it isn’t.