Uneducated People are the Real Problem with America
Why your social media feed lacks truth
One of the most infuriating things about a die-hard Trump supporter is that they don’t seem to care about facts and data. The articles, opinions, and memes they share on Facebook and other social media outlets are mind-boggling, especially now with their blatant denial of COVID-19, and its very real impact on America. Trump’s followers make huge assertions such as, the coronavirus is a hoax, wearing a mask is stupid, and medical professionals are lying about the number of people who have died from this virus.
I recently watched a CNN report, with my own father, of a local hospital that has been ravaged by the virus. In the end, he asked me, “How do you know that’s a real hospital and a real doctor?’’ I was flabbergasted.
I can’t help but feel overwhelmed at the sheer ignorance of it all. Despite the presentation of credible sources that support the fact that a deadly virus is sweeping across our nation, Trump supporters insist that it is all a falsehood meant to impede on their liberties. At the same time, they cling to the fact that all people die, and that if it’s your time you should embrace it. Take one for the team. These people are calling for the death of numerous Americans. Why?
Ignorance. By definition, ignorance is a lack of knowledge or information. You may be thinking, the information and knowledge are there! Why won’t they listen?
Lack of education. Trump’s 2016 election was dependent on the vote of the American UNEDUCATED working class. A 2016 article from The Atlantic states,
“The single best predictor of Trump support in the GOP primary is the absence of a college degree.”
College is where I learned how to research facts through databases, to identify credible sources, and determine when a piece of information was biased.
Think back to your own education. Where did you learn these skills? Maybe you learned a bit in high school.
For some voting-age adults, access to the internet and research data-bases were readily available when completing our high school education. But, think about your parents and grandparents. Did they go to high school in a place and time where these resources were readily available? Would it have been a part of their course of study? For a lot of people, the answer is no. The National Center for Education Statistics began surveying schools that had access to the internet in 1994, well after the time many American adults completed their education.
When President Trump was elected in 2016, it was at the will of our working class. They felt that he gave them a voice. That the ‘silent majority’ had finally spoken. They felt empowered by his rhetoric of bringing jobs back to America, his unpolished speeches, and his promise to build a wall on the American-Mexican border. He was their champion.
A Pew Research Center Poll analyzed reports from validated votes of the 2016 election. Of college graduates polled, 36% voted for Trump while the remaining 57% voted for Clinton. Furthermore, among non-college graduate whites, 64% voted for Trump. The trend of this data indicates that those without a college education were more likely to vote for Trump.
Fast forward to 2020. These same people wholeheartedly believe in President Trump. They believed him when he said the virus was a hoax in January. They called for all of America to ignore safety regulations and go back to work. Now they insist that kids ‘need germs’ and should return to school in the fall.
Trump supporters parrot everything that President Trump and his administration say without question because they never learned how to question their sources.
On top of this, the personal ego and self-worth of Trump supporters are very much wrapped up in their political identity. A Belgium study published in 2019 indicates that people with low emotional intelligence are more likely to align themselves with right-wing beliefs.
The study states, “abilities scores were collected in individual testing sessions, revealed that emotional abilities are significantly and negatively related to social-cultural and economic-hierarchical right-wing attitudes, as well as to blatant ethnic prejudice.”
Trump supporters lack the skills and emotional IQ to question him. They are why your social media feed is filled with ignorant, non-factual arguments that don’t make any sense. This is why uneducated people are the real problem with America.
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