[ant512]

> There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of 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.”

Isaac Asimov, 1980.

http://aphelis.net/cult-ignorance-isaac-asimov-1980/

[maverick_iceman]

To be fair, Europeans display as much ignorance when it comes to GMO foods.

[colanderman]

I think this is part of it, though I feel there's a healthy dose of egoism in there. Americans don't really live in communities like Europeans tend to, and when they do, it tends to be within an socioeconomic bubble. So I think we tend to easily dismiss the worth or even existence of others, the recognition of whom I think would put a damper on anti-intellectualism.