Hilarious that you think that I thought you were from any country.

I'm not writing to you as an individual, gentle soul. It doesn't matter where you are from.

I think even if we had it, so much privileging of crazy beliefs would continue to leave this kind of thing untreated.

“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”

--Asimov

It's so weird how differently things like athletics vs. expertise of the intellectual kind are treated in this country. You can say things like "elite athlete" unironically and that won't really provoke resistance against that.

People that think they can out-sportsball an elite athlete are viewed by most as utterly delusional, because they probably are.

But when so many of my fellow Americans see an expert on some scientific topic, they'll sneer and grumble about "elitists" and how we don't need experts, we have "common sense".

There may be a few true believers among them. Would not surprise me if Marklar Mikey Johnson really believed that. He's the one with that weird porn spyware on his and his son's phone.

But the grift is always part of it in either case, and plenty of them know that their idiotic unhinged base absolutely believe that little-d donnie was put there by their god.