[Deckard]

Oh god yeah.

I know to some I might come across as a smug European posting this stuff about America, but trust me I don't do it to elevate my own country's reputation. (We might be less religious, less right-wing, less guided by patriotism - but we're more insular and stupid in all sorts of other ways!)

No I post these things in the spirit of just utter bafflement. How can the richest, the most powerful country on earth have so many people who are unable or unwilling to look into factual information like this? Is it related to being the most capitalist system in the world, a consumer-led culture taken to its inevitable extreme? Too much bread and circuses? Burnout through working long hours? Did the separation of church and state unwittingly make religion more attractive, which fuels much of the doubt? The greater conservatism and unwillingness to relinquish faulty ideas, traditions and myths? The geography?