Americans live by a series of myths—myths they would be the wiser to abandon. Some are embraced by liberals, others by conservatives, and still others by both.   

Myth 4: Americans are knowledgeable about their own history—and that of other nations. 

Americans’ ignorance of  history—their own and that of other nations—has long been a scandal.

• A 2018 national survey by the Institute for Citizens & Scholars found that only one in three Americans (36%) can actually pass a multiple choice test consisting of items taken from the U.S. Citizenship Test.
• More than half of respondents (60%) didn’t know which countries the United States fought in World War II (Germany, Italy and Japan).
• Only 24% correctly identified one thing Benjamin Franklin was famous for; 37% believed he invented the lightbulb (that inventor was Thomas Edison).
• Twelve percent incorrectly thought WWII General Dwight Eisenhower led troops in the Civil War; six percent thought he was a Vietnam War general. 

if Americans are flagrantly ignorant of their own history, they are even worse at the history of other countries. 

A major reason for this lies in Americans’ belief that other nations aren’t worth bothering about except when they threaten us. During the Vietnam war, soldiers referred to the United States as “The World”—as if the rest of the planet didn’t exist. 

Americans, protected from Europe by the Atlantic Ocean and the Far East by the Pacific Ocean, allowed geography to isolate themselves from the messiness of the rest of the world. 

Donald Trump, as President, gave a frightening example of this during a conversation with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi: “It’s not like you’ve got China on your border.” In fact, India does share a border with China. 

Myth 5: The “Bible Belt” (the Deep South) is the spiritual capitol of America.

You won’t find these truths on “Green Acres” or “The Andy Griffith Show” but they form a stain on rural America that can’t be ignored:

• A 2015 study published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior found that religious conservatives search more for online pornography on Google than anyone else. 
• Educational attainment and college graduation rates in the Bible Belt are among the lowest in the nation.
• Smoking rates are high in West Virginia, Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Mississippi—and so are rates for smoking-related diseases and deaths.
• Heart disease, obesity, homicide and teenage pregnancies are among the highest in the nation.     

Myth 6: Americans are health-conscious. 

The United States is experiencing an epidemic of drug overdose deaths. In 2020, the age-adjusted rate of drug overdose deaths increased 31% compared to 2019.

Adults aged 35-44 experienced the highest rates of drug overdose deaths while young people aged 15-24 experienced the greatest percentage increase in deaths.

In 2019:

• 12 million Americans 12 or older used marijuana 
• 9.1 million Americans used tobacco 
• 14.5 million Americans aged 12 or older used alcohol 
• 9.7 million people misused pain relievers
• 6 million people misused hallucinogens
• 5.9 million people misused depressants
• 5.5 million people misused cocaine
• 4.9 million people misused prescription stimulants
• 2.1 million people misused inhalants  
• 2 million people used meth
• 745,000 Americans used heroin      

Myth 7: Americans only support democratic regimes.  

The United States has long supported foreign dictators—so long as they’re reliably Right-wing.

• Between 1898 and 1934, the United States repeatedly intervened with military force in Central America and the Caribbean. 
• The United States occupied Nicaragua almost continuously from 1912 to 1933. Its legacy was the imposition of the tyrannical Somoza family, which ruled from 1936 to 1979. 
• In 1953, the Eisenhower administration ordered the CIA to overthrew the democratically-elected government of of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. His crime: Nationalizing the Iranian oil industry, which had been under British control since 1913. 

• He was succeeded by Mohammad-Reza Shah Phlavi, a dictator who depended on United States government support to retain power until he was overthrown in 1979 by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
• In 1954, the CIA overthrew the democratically-elected government of Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz. His crime: Installing a series of reforms that expanded the right to vote, allowed workers to organize, legitimized political parties and allowed public debate. 
• In 1970, President Richard M. Nixon ordered the CIA to prevent Marxist Salvador Allende from being democratically elected as president of Chile. When that failed, he ordered the CIA to overthrow Allende.
• His  crime: A series of liberal reforms, including nationalizing large-scale industries (notably copper mining and banking). 
• in 1973, he was overthrown by Chilean army units and national police. He was followed by Right-wing dictator Augusto Pinochet, who slaughtered 3,200 political dissidents, imprisoned 30,000 and forced another 200,000 Chileans into exile. 

* * * * * * * * * *

Behind these myths: The belief in “American exceptionalism”—that the United States is unlike other nations in its innocence and steadfast dedication to human rights above all else.

Wrote Christian G. Appy, in his 2015 book, American Reckoning: The  Vietnam War and Our National Identity:

“It was still unimaginable to most Americans that their own nation would wage aggressive war and justify it with unfounded claims, that it would support undemocratic governments reviled by their own people, and that American troops would be sent to fight in countries where they were widely regarded not as liberators but as imperialist invaders.”

For millions, that belief died a horrific death during the Vietnam war. Yet so long as millions remain convinced that America is guided by God and that its people are His faithful servants, these myths will remain vividly alive. 

“The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie—deliberate, contrived and dishonest—but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the clichés of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.”   

—John F. Kennedy 

Americans live by a series of myths—myths they would be the wiser to abandon. Some are embraced by liberals, others by conservatives, and still others by both.

Myth 1: Americans are highly educated.

According to the 2020 U.S. Census:

• In 2022, the highest level of education of the population age 25 and older in the United States ranged from less than high school to advanced degrees beyond a bachelor’s degree.
• 9% had less than a high school diploma or equivalent;
• 28% had high school as their highest level of school completed;
• 15% had completed some college but didn’t have a degree;
• 10% had an associate degree;
• 23% had a bachelor’s degree;
• 14% had completed advanced education such as a master’s degree, professional degree or doctorate.

Myth 2: Rural America is the repository of old-fashioned virtues.

Years of “hayseed” comedies such as “The Beverly Hillbillies,” “The Real McCoys,” “Green Acres” and “Petticoat Junction” convinced millions of Americans: If you want to find the “real” America, move to rural America. 

If rural America is where you’ll find the “real” Americans, the future of the United States lies in peril. 

Marshall County, Indiana

Derek Jensen (Tysto), CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons

• Rural Americans overwhelmingly support Donald Trump—who refused to accept defeat in a legitimate Presidential election, schemed to overturn the voters’ decision, and finally incited an attack on Congress to illegally remain in office.
• Rural America is home to fundamentalist Christians, who demand an end to legalized abortion and birth control—and thus hope to gain dictatorial control over women’s lives. They brand pro-choice Democrats as “baby killers.” 
• During the 2020 Presidential election, Joe Biden won 91 of the nation’s 100 largest counties, but hardly anywhere else. 
• Trump won about five times as many counties. Democrats are thriving in major metropolitan areas, but tanking elsewhere.
• Rather than being a Garden of Eden, rural America shares many big-city ills, such as crime, opioid addiction and a decline in life expectancy.
• Nearly all of the economic growth that occurred between the Great Recession and the start of the pandemic happened in a small number of metropolitan areas, making rural residents feel that the recession had never ended.