Contending Against Stupidity

ACCORDING TO RECENT SURVEYS, eighty seven percent of the American people are unaware that there exists a comprehensive consensus among scientists that climate change is real, and is caused almost entirely by human behavior, and that there is still time to mitigate its effects and perhaps to even eliminate it completely, but only if extreme action is taken now, such as planting at least a trillion trees, switching entirely to sustainable sources of energy, and by curtailing our rather nasty habit of constantly pumping carbon into the atmosphere and leaving it there, to the tune of thirty billion tons per year, for a grand total of roughly eight hundred and fifty billion, so far, and counting. Again, only thirteen percent of the American people are aware of all this. I know many of these people; among them are some of my friends and my sister, who says: "you hear so many different things about global warming that you just don't know what to believe". Well, you do, actually, dear sis, if you pay attention, real attention. There is more proof of human made climate change than there is of the holocaust, and, as they say; that's goin' some. The number, of course, should be one hundred percent awareness of climate change consensus rather than the mere thirteen, and would be, in a properly educated America. That we are not. Switching gears, recent surveys indicate that twenty percent of the American people believe that freeing the slaves was a bad idea. Here we are talking about Trump supporters, right wing Christian evangelical types. That seems unbelievable at first, but not after giving it some thought, and taking into account the educational level of the American people. I believe both stats, because I live in a very small town in the American south, and most if not all of the misinformed majority live in my neighborhood, or so it sometimes seems. It can be reasonably argued that the slaves were never freed, but were merely gradually transitioned into variously evolved versions of the institution, including segregation, discrimination, lynching, joblessness, and all the rest, good ole fashioned racism of the sort we know and seem to love today, though we deny loving racism and proclaim piously our hatred of it. We embrace it even as we despise it. Go figure, as they say. All of this we Americans know so very well, at least those among us who pay attention, which constitutes a vast minority. But, there is good news. I keep telling people that seventy three percent of the American people are Christians, or claim to be; but, I seem to be mistaken, behind in my facts, a purveyor, if you will, of "fake news" to use that rapidly becoming cliched term. The actual number, according to recent surveys, is more like sixty five percent. Still way too high for 2019, but rapidly declining, and, well, good frigging riddance.The Christian faith is fading away, into the dustbin of history, to use yet another cliche. We the American people may be dumber than doorknobs, or whatever, but we are getting smarter, maybe, and, well, at least we can hang our hats on that, if precious little else.