Maybe they are religious zealots.

Lack of education and the increasing lack support from our leaders for science.

Agreed. America is part oligarchy, part idiocracy. It's beyond embarrassing. The current occupant of the White House personifies that shitty version of America perfectly.

I tend to believe that the same people that believe in magical sky creatures, souls, heaven and hell without evidence are also not going to look for evidence about vaccines, climate change or evolution.

Substitute American for Australian and I feel exactly the same. We do better on evolution, most Australians, even Christians believe in it, I think religion is losing in Oz. The anti vaccers seem to come from our left, and the anti environment, anti climate change, pro fossil fuel lobby are from the right. Sadly, the far right is in power at the moment.

Because our country has been raised on propaganda and bullshit, basically.
When I was a child, learning about other countries was learning about every stereotype.That was it: stereotypes.
I remember when I first became aware that other countries were actually inhabited by people who were worthy of admiration and respect.
Up until my 20s, when I began truly researching and lived in New Zealand and broke out of the United State's version of what reality was, I had no idea.
Not even any idea of what happened with the natives of America.
Manifest Destiny is pretty much what was taught, and everything else was either white-washed or completely left out.
It angers and disgusts and enrages me to no end.

I'm ashamed to be human

as far as the vaccines, it is a trust issue with big pharma. There was a HUGE outbreak of measles at the University of Illinois recently. You know, in a population of vaccinated kids. The vaccine that they were pushing on young girls for cervical cancer was shown to cause more seizures and death than prevent anything. Perhaps the goal of that one was preventing young girls from growing up. My doctor argued with me about that one and then more studies came out showing the dangers of it. I never got an apology from her. The seeds of doubt or mistrust once sown are hard to weed out.

It is a lack of education. Education is a resource which is in dwindling supply in this country. A recent racial disparities chart shows several school districts falling further and further behind in funding for schools. The Charter school plan only makes the problems worse because private schools can an do teach unscientific and religious ideas. Education cost.

I am going to throw a divisive idea out and say I strongly believe a BIG part of the problem is our 'excessive' (that word is important) immigration rate! Several years ago a spokeswoman from the Seattle school district said in this district some 150+ languages are spoken. This means money is needed for translators, instructor assistants, bootstrap programs, English programs for the parents and on and on. Often there are no qualified people to translate some of the lesser used languages and the district has to hire whoever is available. So much money is going for this, that money is being funneled away from Special education.

One additional comment: I recently went for a tetanus booster at our pharmacy. I noticed a world map on the wall listing diseases for various countries. I noted a huge outbreak of measles in most of Europe. I knew but asked anyway and was told that this is caused by the large number of people coming into the countries from places that had poor or no vaccine program. If it is not a part of one's culture it is hard to show others how important it is.

Again education cost. More and more states are having trouble coming up with funding and are raising property taxes and adding lottery's into the mix. Here timber harvest have been used but we are running out of harvestable, sustainably qualified lumber. Again and again it is a population problem.

Basic ignorance (much of the time, willfully so). They don't believe in vaccines because they'd rather believe a fringe group of quacks rather than the AMA and CDC [They also believe that THEIR kid will never get measles or polio, much less become part of the epidemic when it finds other stupid people's kids]...They don't believe in climate change because altering their lifestyle, even just a little, would be too inconvenient (or would cut into a billionaire's profits)...And people don't believe in evolution because an outdated (and sketchily-accurate at best) history book told them so.

Because there are so many Americans - and so much America! There’s still a ‘grab it now’ mentality here.. ‘Yah.. I’ve heard something about that, but since I’ve the freedom to do stupid stuff - I will!’ ‘And I want that,’ ‘and I don’t want that’...

I’m ashamed of it, too. Those preaching how ‘blessed America is’ appear the first to consume it. What’s scary is ‘we’ really are a melting pot of cultures … and a perfect example of such cultures going Hog-wild! So, instead of one ‘main religion,’ we’ve a shitload of them - all competing as to who can build the most impressive ‘house of worship,’ wear the fanciest clothes and drive the largest vehicles…

Commercialism runamuck, Creeping fascism, widespread racism, the rejection of science, increasing oligarchy … as the civilized nations pass us by.. You’re not alone, simply honest. But if we go down - I envision you fighting all the way

on all the above subjects people don't take the time to do the research or don't have the required knowledge to understand the entire problem or benefits, vaccines save many lives and keep the infectious diseases from spreading. Evolution is pieced together using the scientific method, fossil records archaeology and even some preserved samples of DNA. Climate change people will not look at the other causes and other opinions that minorities have, even on this website supposedly open-minded people will not look at the other side of climate change.

My brother, who is a far right wing nut, says he likes to keep his life simple in terms of black and white. So, basically, it is a kind of willful ignorance, or choosing not to acknowledge facts that dont' fit into what one wants to believe. To have to change one's beliefs means thinking and work, and (too) many people are comfortable with their lives as they are and dont' want to change their beliefs or way of life.

There is also the issue of if they based theri entire life and decisions based on religion, and tif they admit that their religion bot part of it wrong, then it brings into question the whole ideology on which they based their entire life. They just cant' stand the idea that thier entire life was based on false beliefs, so they choose to willfully ifnore anything that contradicts their beliefs.

That is why religiosu peole get angry when you point out facts that dont' fit into their beliefs. Those facts brign into question everything on which they based their whole life purpose on. They fear beign wrong. They get embarrassed (and often hostile) when confronted with facts that brign their beliefs into question.

As many people have pointed out ever since Trump's "shithole" comment, the US is the "shithole" of the first world. Why would someone from, say, Norway, want to come to the US? They've got free healthcare, free education, lower crime rates...we are quite a lot further behind than we should be.

And we should be right up there, cuz these are fundamentally our ideas! I was watching a good documentary that visited different parts of the world and examining the succussful ideas that the US hasn't been implementing (like free healthcare and such). They were examining the Norwegian prison system in one segment. The documenter (an American) was surprised to see just how nice the prisons were. When he asked one of the Norwegians who ran the prison where he got the idea to treat inmates so humanely, the Norwegian answered-"We got it from you! We got it from the US! It says in your own constitution, no cruel or unusual punishment!"

We are failing because we are abandoning the thoughtful ideas that made us initially successful and trading them for a number of vices- consumerism, religion, complacency, arrogance, willful ignorance. Bottom line is, America isn't what it used to be. And even back then, it had trouble living up to its own ideals. But these ideals are possible- other countries are proving it. We jusr need to step up our game as individuals.

Here is a very good read. Type in Anti-Intellectualism and the "Dumbing Down" down of America. Ray Williams. The rise of "alternative facts" and opinions replacing science and real facts.

Vaccines should not have dehydrated monkey brains in them. Climate changes because we have an atmosphere, and a dynamic geochemical process that extends for 41/2 billion years. Evolution is an assumption that the superior traits improve chances for successful breeding and survival...and you don't need to worry about giant rocks dropping out of the sky for mass extinctions.

About Flu Shots. Enjoy.

Your education system is funded by the municipality therefore a poor town can sometimes produce a poor education

I'm not sure, I think the internet has given all pseudo scientists a soapbox to preach from. Technology puts a lot of information at our fingertips, however, the ability to evaluate that information is lacking. There are many,many people out there who think doctors and government agencies are corrupt. Many anti-vaxxers believe that the only reason medical professionals want to vaccinate children is to make money.

1 out of 3 ain't bad... I don't care for vaccines or medications. Even when they work, the side effects could be worse than what they cure. Haven't caught a flu in 30 years? Not vaccinated in 18 years?