[lucianbr]

You should read about the popes in medieval times. Point being, everything you wrote is about humans, not about americans. And having religion changed nothing. Who knows what those people believed inside their minds, but outward they had religion, and outward is all we can see for anyone.

> stupid societies full of stupid people should and do inevitably collapse

No society endures forever it seems (maybe I'm misinformed?), but no society is immune to stupidity, so I'm not sure your statement about stupid societies actually has meaning. Collapse is certain, the causes less so.

I take solace in the fact that either nuclear annihilation or some kind of climate disaster, seems inevitable, but also nobody's fault in particular. We could avoid it if we weren't human. But I'm not sure that I want that. The good would likely be gone with the bad.

Maybe the cokroaches will manage better, or the robots, but maybe the Fermi paradox solution is that life always evolves to be too greedy for it's own good.