Given what we know about Roger's life, how much of "the world's" disapproval of him could be actual destructive things he did, compared to how much of it is likely smear from the WG?

In my opinion the world’s hatred of Roger is pretty well justified. Not so much because of the things he did during his lifetime, but because of the consequences of his final words. Pirates have always been around in the world of One Piece, but it was Roger’s execution 22 years ago that launched “The Great Age of Pirates.” It was the very first page of the manga. The amount of pirates in the world exploded after Roger’s final words on the execution stand, and countless people have suffered for it. For every crew of “good” pirates out there, going around and being decent people, there are 4 more crews of asshole pirates who pillage and burn their ways through the seas, looking for gold and glory at the expense of others. Fans seem to forget that a lot of the time. And honestly, I feel like Oda sometimes forgets it too

See this scene? These street punks aren’t exactly wrong. LOTS of people are hurt by pirates. And Roger played a large hand in encouraging piracy. Roger caused more problems for innocent people in death than he ever did with his own two hands. However, with the way this scene is framed, we as the audience are meant to hate these kids and reject what they’re saying. They are presented unsympathetically, so many people don’t actually take their words to heart. And plus, we’ve gotten so many characters complementing and praising Roger (Rayleigh, Gan Fall, Garp, Whitebeard, etc), that we can’t help but immediately dismiss these kids for calling Roger trash and scum.

However, how are they wrong? Can you even imagine how many people have suffered and died at the hands of pirates who took to the seas because they desired to find Roger’s hidden treasures for themselves? Why shouldn’t they hate and resent Roger? However, Oda keeps invalidating the feelings of these people by presenting them as mean, petty, terrible people who go too far and say things like this

Oda has done nothing to ever establish why the common people of the world should have anything other than hate for Roger. Instead, Oda has simply presented those same people as cruel, vindictive assholes who would kill Roger’s son just for having Roger’s blood. Thus, we can comfortably ignore the them and their feelings and instead focus on all the bigger, actually respectable characters who tell us about how great and amazing Roger was.

I’m not saying that Roger really IS scum. What I’m saying is that the common people of the world have a legitimate right to hate him, same as how Ace himself legitimately hated Roger (something I talked about here). The world of One Piece is a fucked up place. The World Government is a highly corrupt institution, and it is ultimately set up to support the Celestial Dragons, who are the world’s ultimate scumbags. Roger wanted to turn this world on its head. However, Roger was willing to potentially sacrifice countless ordinary people in the process. Presumably, Roger said his final words in the hopes of inspiring more pirates, so that one day someone would come along and finish what he started. However, as I said before, for every pirate out there with a decent heart, there’s lots more than will cut a child’s throat for profit or fun.

The world does need to change. However, for most of the ordinary people in the world who have done nothing wrong themselves and live ordinary lives, it’s not the World Government who are showing up at their doors and murdering their friends and family. It’s pirates. Pirates who often were directly or indirectly inspired by Roger to take up piracy. Roger’s actions have had real consequences for the ordinary people of the world. The World Government doesn’t even need to run a lie-filled smear campaign against Roger to make the people of the world hate him. The pirates who have plagued their lives, singing their own praises of glory and dreams of obtaining Roger’s treasures is all the reason to hate Roger they need.

And on a closing note, Roger also did some shady stuff with his own two hands. He killed Squard’s entire crew, and he also destroyed an entire country’s army for insulting his friends. What are the odds that that army was necessary for protecting the people of that country from pirates and other threats? Lots of good people respect him, but he also comes across as a very amoral person who is quite indifferent to others’ suffering. We’ll have to wait and see of Oda ever adequately addresses these aspects of Roger’s character and genuinely acknowledges how many people suffered as a result of Roger’s actions and legacy.