[chiefalchemist]

And it's likely [1]...

- 1 in 5 believe the earth is flat.

- 2 in 7 believe in the Easter Bunny.

- 4 in 10 don't know that 4 of 10 is 40%

- 3 in 8 have never left their own state.

- 7 in 10 want to grow up to be online "influencers".

- And so on...

The point is, if you're looking for a factual but clickbait-ready headline just survey young Anericans. Why is The Economist dabbling is such LCD "journalism"?

[1] These aren't factual. They're fictional and for effect.

[incomingpain]

So it's not a matter of 'they are nazis' but more of an indictment of the american educational system?

Also... yes not much journalism happening in the USA these days.

[chiefalchemist]

Exactly. What The Economist has sensationalized is a symptom. Low hanging slow-news-day fruit.

[krapp]

It's both. The normalization of anti-semitic conspiracy theory and neo-nazi ideology though internet culture and mainstream politics is a big reason Holocaust denial has become so common - and that is a result of, among other things, the failure of the American education system and culture.

[sharemywin]

the American education system is being replaced by social media. all that's left is the american babysitter system.

[incomingpain]

I don't believe the anti-semitic side. Here in Canada, nobody is a nazi. It's not our side of the war.

If there's any legitimate holocaust denial, it's coming from 1 source.

Govenment says I must believe X. I pretty much know X is a lie and it's probably the opposite.

[calmlynarczyk]

Your theoretical examples imply that you think the age range called out in this article headline refers to children, when it's actually 18-29 year olds. These are legal adults that responded to this poll, not kids who may not have yet gone through the requisite history classes. Are you really using belief in the Easter Bunny as a "whatabout" argument to hand-wave away the significantly higher rate of Holocaust denialism among this age range?

[chiefalchemist]

Ok. Fair enough. Strike Easter Buddy and replace it with "Won't get pregnant if you have sex standing up."

As for History class. I remember in HS we never made it to mid 20th century. And nonetheless you're assuming that taking a class will become someone dogma. That's not how hate, propaganda, ignorance, works.

The fact is, The Economist's "argument" is flawed from the start. It's a silly and senseless way to do news / journalism. And no one is catching that? What does that tell us? Yeah, ironic.