I hate when people say "back in the good ol' days" as though society was better fifty years ago than it is today. And to be completely fair, I must admit that I wasn't alive fifty years ago to speak from experience, though I'm sure the obvious advancements made since then can speak for themselves. But I'm not going to compare the intellectual state of the average citizen today to how things were "back before bicycle helmets, car seats and that damned Internet" but I can say, without fear of being nostalgically biased, that people are stupid.

Yep. I said it. The average, middle class, blue-collar, hard working, plumber Joe American is a flipping idiot that doesn't know what the hell they're talking about unless it's football or Oprah. They're too busy feeding their faces with smutty magazines, tacky sit-coms, vampire books, chicken soups for the soul and video games to actually learn something about the world around them every so often.

A 2005 article in The New York Times states that one in five adult Americans thinks the sun revolves around the Earth.

Wait. Let me reiterate that one with the proper accents to really drive this home.

A 2005 article in the New York Times states that ONE IN FIVE adult Americans THINKS THE SUN REVOLVES AROUND THE EARTH.

There are really only two excuses one could give in defense of this scientific misunderstanding. They are as follows:

Excuse 1- "Of course I think the sun revolves around the earth, for I am a time traveler from the 14th century who has never heard of heliocentrism. What? Copernicus? Who's that?"

Excuse 2- "From the time I was born to this very moment, I have been kept under a very dark, heavy rock. My parents fed me earthworms and laffytaffy and prevented me from learning anything from anybody. I couldn't read any books, except for the Bible, of course."

If neither of these applies to you, and you are just learning of this late breaking, cosmic development, unfortunately you fall into the Plumber Joe category defined above. Go read a book. (not the Bible)

But why are Americans so dumb? Why do the majority of people in the US think Africa is a country? Why do so many Americans, after years of political discussion and analysis on the topic, think Saddam Hussein was the one who ordered planes flown into the WTC on September 11th? And why do 24% of our uber-patriotic citizens not know what country we fought in the revolutionary war? At first, I chalked it up to simple, genetic inability to process information. I felt sorry for these people because they were born stupid. But I soon realized this couldn't be the case when I heard several 'good ole boys' at work argue about the differential in the new Ford pickups, complete with in-depth descriptions of complex mechanical processes. The cognitive capacity is there. The interest is not.

Obviously, somewhere along the line, someone conveyed to all these people that this political, philosophical, scientific and mathematical knowledge wasn't as important as, say, the names and statistics of every athlete on the Chicago Bears or why Brad and Jennifer broke up again.

"So who cares?" you say. "If they want to be ignorant, let them." you sass. But here's the thing. I don't want to hear someone talk about shit they know nothing about but think they are an expert on. It makes me angry that these people get to vote and use taxpayer money when they couldn't care less who their senators or representatives are, or what they do for that matter. I don't like to discuss politics with someone who thinks Glenn Beck would make a great president and I don't like reading texts from people who don't know how to spell 'Merry Christmas!' (Marry Christmas).

If you choose to be uninformed, it's none of my business. If you have no desire to learn about life or seek answers to your questions or observe the planet and the cosmos bustling around you everywhere you look, it's fine by me. But if you don't know what you are talking about, please don't talk. You aren't that important. Because regardless of what one in five Americans think, the universe does not revolve around you.