Here it is: the biggest missed story of this century is the incredible dumbing down of the American public, to the point where a cripplingly large portion of the adult population is no longer willing or able to exercise independent critical thinking in order to take decisive action on a wide range of issues that shape the direction of our economy, culture, and personal freedoms.  Indeed, too lazy and unmotivated to analyze readily available, credible data, far too many people have ceded their personal independence to government dictates — dictates clearly designed to increase government control over the population, rather than having been put in place for the genuine good of the people.

Let's look at some examples:

Masks

When COVID first hit, we were told to "mask up."  The COVID particle was smaller than the weave opening in non-professional masks, yet people went dutifully along anyway, unwilling to look at things logically.  Then we were told to double-mask.  Then it was the plastic face shield over a mask.  Nothing sums up the dumbing down of America better than the image of a person driving alone in his car, all masked up.

Vaccines

The COVID vaccines were — and remain — experimental.  First we were told that if you take the vax, you can't get COVID.  That was wrong.  Then we were told that if you take the vax and a booster, you can't get or transmit COVID.  That was wrong.  Then we were told that if you get double-boosted, you'll be protected from all future variants.  That was wrong.  Then we were assured that the inexplicably high number of adverse reactions to the vaccine was totally coincidental, despite earlier vaccines having been pulled from the market for having only a fraction of the adverse reactions of the COVID vaccines.  Yet when people were told "no entry unless vaccinated," they went along.

2020 Election fraud

• More votes cast and counted than there were registered voters in the district.  No possibility of fraud there.
• Ballot-stuffing in drop boxes caught on camera during the wee hours of the night.  No possibility of fraud there.
• Late ballots coming in in a statistically impossible 90+% manner for one candidate.  No possibility of fraud there.
• Republican poll observers being kicked out and then an overwhelmingly high proportion of votes suddenly materializing for the Democrat candidate.  No possibility of fraud there.
• Mail-in voting procedures being widely implemented because of "COVID concerns," but there were no verifiable chain-of-custody procedures in place and no mechanism to confirm voter signature authenticity.  No possibility of fraud there.
• Voting machines proven to be connected to the internet, despite vehement protests to the contrary.  No possibility of fraud there.

How can any reasonably intelligent person not question these things?  You may still believe that the 2020 election results were valid, but simply raising logical questions does not make someone a criminal.

Those humorous "man in the street" interviews are fun, and granted, only the most outlandish ones make the cut onto the TV segment.  Still, answers like "1924" when asked, "What year did the Civil War begin?"  and "Hmmm...Spain?" when asked, "Whom did we win our independence from?" are emblematic of the widespread, deep-rooted "couldn't care less" attitude about knowing about the United States that's evidenced by so many adults today, especially Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z.

This wasn't always true.  In WWII, whether from Massachusetts or Kansas, Catholic, Protestant or Jewish, Red Sox fan or Cardinals fan, American G.I.s were fiercely loyal to one another and their country.  It mattered.

In the 1950s, the vast majority of ordinary Americans knew all about the "arms race" with the Soviets and knew exactly where the public fallout shelters were in case of attack.

The Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 was followed by everyone, eyes and ears glued to the television for hours on end.  We as a country pulled for JFK to find a way out.  We didn't say it was the Democrats' or Republicans' fault.  The country stood as one, calm, concerned, and informed.

In 1969, the Apollo 11 lunar landing was hailed as a unified American triumph, without any thought of conservatives vs. liberals.

In 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell, the majority of American adults completely understood the significance, having lived with the Wall as a defining element of foreign relations for most of their adult lives.

But in recent decades, especially after 9/11/2001, the Democrats have made a conscious, concerted effort to divide the country along political and demographic lines for the express purpose of seizing ever-greater power over the electorate.  In addition to convincing various groups that they are suddenly victims as a result of Republican policies, Democrats have willingly attempted to make sure that as wide a swath as possible of their potential voting base remains uninformed.  Hence the phenomenal, almost criminal, misinformation and outright lies fed to the public about things such as Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine.  These COVID treatments could've stopped the pandemic in its tracks had they been widely disseminated early on.

Instead, we got highly regarded doctors being banned from Facebook, hospitals succumbing to liberal government pressure and refusing to prescribe these treatments and liberal cable news commentators referring derisively to ivermectin as a "horse de-wormer" — all in service to one overriding fact:

great portions of the American public will not seek out the truth if it's the slightest bit inconvenient.  These same people are only too willing to accept liberal government lies and being told what to do.  A frighteningly high percentage of potential Democrat voters are far more interested in their own personal comfort and convenience and far less interested in doing any kind of hard mental analysis of complicated issues.

The Democrats know this.  They know that if they tell their voting base to keep their mask on while in line at Starbucks, they will.  They have no interest in weave opening versus particle size.  They just want their Grande Iced Caramel Macchiato, and don't bother me with anything else.

There's a funny Facebook meme that's been making the rounds.  It goes something like, "Not saying the current generation is dumb, but your grandfather's car owner's manual had a section in it describing how to adjust the valves.  Today's cars owner's manuals tell you not to drink the battery fluid."

The high proportion of self-absorbed, convenience-obsessed, unintellectually curious adults in America is the biggest story of the 21st century.  This is what is driving the direction of the country and shaping our culture.

Image: Chris Dodds via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.