Most Americans have only heard the words used in the contexts that are being bitched about. And that’s intentional on behalf of the ruling class. It’s a framing of the conversation on a societal scale. More accurate information is out there, but to find it, one would need to either be intellectually curious (a dangerous trait to exhibit in the “wrong” setting) or stumble across it at random AND have the inclination to hear out something that goes against what they’ve been told their whole lives instead of rejecting it out of hand.
And now we are neck deep in yet another round of anti-intellectualism to further compound the issue. I’m not trying to make excuses, just provide context that tends to get lost amongst the “Americans are stupid” narrative.
Most Americans have only heard the words used in the contexts that are being bitched about. And that’s intentional on behalf of the ruling class. It’s a framing of the conversation on a societal scale. More accurate information is out there, but to find it, one would need to either be intellectually curious (a dangerous trait to exhibit in the “wrong” setting) or stumble across it at random AND have the inclination to hear out something that goes against what they’ve been told their whole lives instead of rejecting it out of hand.
And now we are neck deep in yet another round of anti-intellectualism to further compound the issue. I’m not trying to make excuses, just provide context that tends to get lost amongst the “Americans are stupid” narrative.