Pervading American Ignorance

 THERE IS PERVASIVE IGNORANCE in America, of the inexcusable kind. Everyone languishes in ignorance of some sort; for ignorance of certain salient facts, there is no justification. According to "The Hartmann Report", only one half of Americans realize that Donald Trump had anything, directly or indirectly, to do with the overturning of Roe v.Wade. In fact he appointed the three Supreme Court justices who made the decision possible, as Trump often brags. One fifth of Americans think that President Biden was partly responsible for it.. More American think that Trump can "fix" the economy, perhaps by further cutting taxes for the wealthy, than believe that Biden can, who has in fact already fixed the economy, with demonstrably effective legislation and economic policy.  And yet, fifty five percent of Americans believe that the economy is shrinking, even though it is growing at the faster rate than at any time since World War Two, and has for three consecutive years. Three-quarters believe that inflation is getting worse, even though during the Biden administration  it has drastically declined, and is now lower than at any time during the Reagan administration. Sixty percent of Americans think that the economy is "bad",because of Biden's mismanagement, when in fact it is  thriving,  because of Biden's excellent management  of it. Unemployment  is at its lowest level in fifty years, although half of all Americans believe that it is at a fifty year high. The disastrous Trump economy has been repaired, by Biden. Only one third of Americans realize that the G.O.P. appointed the conservative SCOTUS majority. Nearly one half thinks that another Biden administration will damage democracy, perhaps believing that a Trump "Reich" , with Trump ruling by decree, as he has expressed a desire to do, will improve and strengthen it. One one third of us the American people can name the three branches of government. Seventy percent of Republicans still believe that the 2020 election was "stolen" from Trump, or pretend to. Only one quarter of Republicans consider climate change to be an existential threat to the United States, despite its  now obvious devastating impact on the entire world, despite the fact that for more than twenty years the U.S.  Department of Defense has listed human made climate change as the single greatest threat to American national security. One half of Americans believe that Social Security will be "gone' by the time they retire, when in fact only a few minor adjustments to the system are necessary to preserve it intact. About one half of Americans, doubtless Trump supporter, conservatives, believe that the mainstream media has mad "too much" out of Trump's attempt to overthrow the American government by violent insurrection,an attempted coup which Trump conceived and orchestrated in detail well in advance of 1-6-21. None of this is surprising, although all of it is shocking. Considering that more than one half of the American people claim to have abducted by aliens beings,or that they an recall past lives, or that vaccines are harmful to people, or that a vast, secretive"deep state" is governing the country, nothing that Americans believe should seem surprising, but only alarming. As Carl Sagan said; considering the number of synapses , axons and dendrites in the human Brian, considering the number of possible electro-chemical chemicals possible in the human cranium, nothing than any human says or does should seem surprising. this, especially since nearly half of all Americans are conservative political extremists, and nearly one quarter of them are zealous evangelical Christians.