I find the variance between polling and DU informal polling to be interesting.

[Jedi Guy]

57. I don't know that I'd go that far.

The information is out there if one has the wherewithal to go looking. It's hardly as if US/world history, government, civics, etc. is classified info. Even if schools don't teach it (which they absolutely should), the Internet is pretty much the sum total of human knowledge, only a few clicks away.

Personally, I think it's simple apathy. When my old man taught history, his kids would say, "History is boring. What does it matter what a bunch of dead people did a hundred years ago?" Some people just aren't interested in it because they think it has no impact on their lives, and/or they don't prize knowledge for its own sake.

When I'm feeling more charitable, I think it may also be that people are so damn busy trying to eke out a living that they simply don't have time for anything that doesn't involve making money and putting food on the table. When you're dragging ass tired after your double shift, you're not interested in gaining knowledge. You just want to nuke your frozen dinner, shovel it into your face, and collapse into bed.

But the kind of people who actively scorn knowledge or have no time to seek it are the ones who put Trump in the Oval Office. Somehow or other, we have to figure out a way to break that cycle, or the know-nothings will keep voting for bigger know-nothings.