A nation of ignorance

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In a recent survey from the National Science Foundation, one in four Americans revealed they were unaware that the Earth orbits the sun.

Galileo would be ashamed. Unfortunately, this is not the only example of such astonishing ignorance in our modern-day world.

Regrettably, crazy is alive and well in the United States.

In 2013, Fairleigh Dickinson University released another depressing study that showed at least 25 percent of Americans believe in a conspiracy of some sort.

Amazingly, this lunacy cuts across many political affiliations.

The same study revealed 25 percent of registered voters who were sampled in the study think former U.S. President George W. Bush knew about the 9/11 attacks in advance.

It amazes me that people can be this foolish. Like President Obama, Bush was not a competent leader.

The notion that his team would ignore something that catastrophic and damaging to the nation is absurd. If they couldn’t find bin Laden, I don’t think they’re manipulative enough to allow an attack in New York City and Washington, D.C. for political gain.

In addition to that lunacy, 36 percent of the sampled Republicans in the survey believe Democratic Party supporters committed major voter fraud to win the election in 2012.

Mitt Romney lost because he ran a poor and ineffective campaign that was made up of more internet memes than substance.

Everyone remembers Clint Eastwood talking to the empty chair, but no one remembers the former governor of Massachusetts’ foreign policy plans.

Outside the realm of politics, the foolishness of some Americans gets even worse. According to a 2013 survey from Public Policy Polling, 20 percent of Americans still believe that vaccines can cause autism in children. Although the publisher of the medical journal that the claim was first made has since retracted the work for being flawed, people still believe it to be true.

In spite of evidence to the contrary from respected academics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people still refuse to give their kids medicine that would make their life better.

Out of all of the wingnut beliefs out there, nothing comes close to those of David Icke. Icke is a British citizen who believes that shape-shifting lizard people control the global political order.

He believes that Bush, Queen Elizabeth II, and the Clintons are secretly green and scaly when no one is watching.

I hate to say it, but it will only get harder to dispel such ignorance in the future.

Although the internet is a wonderful tool for learning about anything that comes to mind, it is also a detriment to society that enables people to hold onto nutty ideas for far longer than they should.

I’d like to think things would eventually change, but that would be most certainly wrong.

-Evan Pretzer is a junior communication major from from Weyburn, Saskatchewan. He can be contacted at 335-2290 or by [email protected]. The opinions expressed in this column are not necessarily those of the staff of The Daily Evergreen or those of Student Publications.