We’ll never solve the second-tier, poisonous problems such as racism, sexism, and classism — all underpinned by a violent gun culture — while so many Americans are hungry, sick, and underemployed, too consumed by survival to turn their attention to our more complicated problems. Americans prefer an oversimplified view of the world around them, one in which we’re better than everyone else, where our military might makes right. We elect people who keep the nation dumbed-down so that no one makes a stink when the Supreme Court steals an election, or when we invade the wrong country after 9–11.