A Huge Collection of Statistics That Reveals Americans' Ignorance and Moral Confusion Today

“History is brutal and humans are not good people." - Bill Maher in his final "New Rule" from last week.

Dec 20, 2023

This is the 14th installment of the new “Axis of Genocide” series at this Zionist Substack, the successor to the “Antisemitism and Culture” series which can be read in two 30-essay collections here and here.

This new series will document and analyze the antisemitic genocidal war waged against Israel by the Hamas terrorist group and its primary supporter, the Islamic regime in Iran. The accomplices in this attempt at a second Holocaust — Vladimir Putin’s criminal-gangster state in Russia and the authoritarian regime in China — will also come in for scrutiny and loud condemnation, as will the non-state actors supporting them, particularly the international Muslim Brotherhood propaganda network, and radical activists of both the far left and the far right. Other evil states and terrorist groups will also receive scrutiny. You can find a list of previous installments at the end of this post. Thank you for your support.

Does America today just not make sense to you? Does many people seem to be acting strangely - their beliefs and moral values perplexing? Do you look at television, YouTube, and social media, just wondering why so much of it is so dumb, if not outright evil? Have so many people’s reactions to the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack made these questions more stark than they were before?

If so, you're not alone. What could be causing all of this? Let’s take a walk through the ashes of the “American Dream” and find out what’s really going on here.

Antisemitism in America Today

Let’s first consider one of the reports of American opinion that I’ve thought about most this year: the ADL’s regular survey of antisemitic attitudes. Here’s the big, scary number: “Twenty percent of Americans believe six or more tropes, which is significantly more than the 11 percent that ADL found in 2019 and is the highest level measured in decades.”

Thus, since 2019, the level of Americans who the ADL characterizes as “having antisemitic attitudes” has nearly doubled. When you look at answers to specific antisemitic tropes many people believe in, the numbers are even higher:

And let’s also consider the numbers of people who we might characterize as “mildly antisemitic,” rather than a full-blown “possesses antisemitic attitudes.” Here are the numbers for those who believe 2-5 antisemitic tropes:

And how are things at right now with Holocaust denial?

“Just seven percent of Americans overall said the Holocaust is a myth, with 77% disagreeing. The other 16% were unsure. No respondents older than 65 believed the Holocaust to be a myth.”

So that’s 23% of the country either denying the Holocaust or unsure about whether it actually happened.

Now, with these numbers on antisemitism in mind, let’s consider some figures from this survey regarding anti-Israel beliefs:

40 percent of the population at least slightly believes that Israel treats Palestinians like Nazis treated the Jews.
18 percent of the population is uncomfortable spending time with a person who supports Israel.

Here are some further numbers from a post-Oct. 11 survey we’ll analyze more in-depth below:

Israel is seen favorably (54% to 26%, with 24% seeing it very favorably)
14% see Hamas favorably

And here are some more from another survey:

27% of Americans believe that “Israel is deliberately trying to wipe out the Palestinian population.”

So to summarize: about a fifth of Americans are outright antisemitic, just over a quarter are anti-Israel, and there’s about 40% or so in the middle, to varying degrees on both issues.

American Historical and Constitutional Ignorance Today

A poll in 2019 found these examples of ignorance about constitutional governance:

“only 2 in 5 American adults – or 39 percent – could correctly name the three branches of government: executive, legislative and judicial.”
20% could not name one branch of government.

A 2015 poll found an example of historical ignorance:

Only 50% of Americans could identify when the Civil War took place.
Even a third of college graduates could not name when the Civil War took place.

And how about when it comes to the First Amendment?

“When asked unprompted to name the protections specified in the First Amendment, the number of respondents who could identify them declined, at times steeply: Freedom of speech was cited by 63%, down from 74% in 2021 and 73% in 2020. Freedom of religion was named by 24%, down from 56% in 2021 and 47% in 2020.”
“Over half of Americans (51%) continue to assert incorrectly that Facebook is required to let all Americans express themselves freely on its platform under the First Amendment.”
“Nearly two-thirds of self-described conservatives (63%) think Facebook posts are covered by the First Amendment – as do half of self-described moderates (50%) and a smaller group of self-described liberals (41%).”

This number from the above survey is also very troubling:

(“73%) know it is inaccurate to say that under the Constitution a president can ignore a Supreme Court ruling if the president believes it is wrong (up from 65% in 2018), though 1 in 5 (22%) incorrectly thinks that is accurate.”

The Bigotry Among Young People In America Today

From the ADL survey cited above: “Additionally, young adults hold significantly more anti-Israel sentiment than older adults, with 21 percent and 11 percent agreeing with five or more anti-Israel statements, respectively.”

Again, when we look at those whose antisemitism is milder - those who believe 2-4 anti-Israel tropes - and then take a look at the numbers and how much they between Americans broadly and older adults, we see the following:

Let’s look at these numbers with some specifics from other polling:

30% of those under 30 believe Israel is an “apartheid state.”
19% believe Israel does not have a right to exist.
26% said the way to end the conflict is for “Israel to be ended and given to Hamas and the Palestinians.”

And then, of course, there are the numbers from this poll, which are being widely cited, yet seem contradictory when examined in full. This is likely an effect of ignorance. Here are the 18-24 year-olds:

“Younger voters said the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel were terrorism (73%) and genocidal (66%) in nature, meaning the terror group sought to destroy Israel systematically. Yet 60% said Palestinian grievances can justify Hamas killing 1,200 civilians and kidnapping 250 civilians.”
“57% of younger voters said that Israel should cease all hostilities now.”
“The younger demographic overwhelmingly supports (79%) the ideology that white people are oppressors and thinks that ideology is helpful (51%) to society.”
“67% of those ages 18 to 24 said that Jews are as a class oppressors.”
“Younger voters were also the most likely to say that students should be told that they are free to call for genocide against Jews (53%, compared to 74% overall) and the least likely (70%, compared to 79% overall) to say that protesters on university campuses calling for genocide against Jews constitutes hate speech. No other age demographic said by a majority that students should be free to call for genocide against Jews.”
However, seeming to contradict the above: “73% of those in the 18-to-24 age bracket called for the resignation of the three university presidents, who said that it depends on context whether calling for the genocide against Jews violated their school policies.”
Likewise: “58% of younger voters said Hamas wants to commit genocide against Jews in Israel, compared to 74% of voters overall.” This indicates that over 40% of young people don’t know that Hamas wants to finish the job Hitler started. 60% of younger voters claim that Israel is now committing genocide in Gaza. Only 51% knew that Iran was supporting Hamas.

From the same poll that indicated 27% support for the belief Israel is committing genocide:

“Among 18- to 29-year-old respondents, 20% agreed that the Holocaust is a myth, with 8% agreeing strongly. Another 30% neither agreed nor disagreed.”

Here’s a poll from 2022: “56% of U.S. youth aged 18 to 29 view Israel unfavorably, and of those aged 30 to 49, the unfavorability rate is 47%.”

The Massive Ideological Divisions and Diversity Today

Finally, to change gears for a moment, there’s another piece of context that needs to be understood. It’s revealed in this 2021 Pew study of ideology, which I find tremendously helpful, as it backs up an argument I’ve been making for 20 years now:

Here are the ideological categories - check out the article and try the quiz to see how it works - which Pew sorts the broader American public into:

Faith and Flag Conservatives (10% of the public)
Committed Conservatives (7%)
Populist Right (11%)
Ambivalent Right (12%)
Stressed Sideliners (15%)
Outsider Left (10%)
Democratic Mainstays (16%)
Establishment Liberals (13%)
Progressive Left (6%)

Now, there are many other sorts of statistics I also wanted to draw on here which illustrate other factors in America’s cultural chaos, but those will have to wait for another time, as I’m hitting the “near email length limit” warning now.

So all of this is to say: there are a whole lot of hateful people in America today. And what can we do to deal with them? Even those who do not embrace hate still have wildly different worldviews.

What can we do to bridge divides and find common solutions to defeat hate? I have my ideas and have written about them previously on this Substack, but please leave yours in the comments below.