From time to time I think that the US is destined to collapse in the way that all empires eventually do. This mood arises especially when I read one of those surveys where some incredibly large percentage of American teens can’t find their own country on a map or doesn’t know who Hitler was, or when some equally astonishingly large fraction of the population thinks that the sun revolves around the earth or that dinosaurs were walking around a few thousand years ago.

So it’s especially depressing to come across a survey of American stupidity, which is what you can find at Tomgram, where there’s an extract of a book by Rick Shenkman.

Here’s a snippet:

22 percent of Americans [can] name all five Simpson family members, compared with just 1 in 1,000 people who could name all five First Amendment freedoms.

We’re doomed!