> it's clear that at least half all American voters don't understand technical definitions or explanations
What you are essentially saying is that over half the public has a low level of comprehension which simply isn’t true.
You can’t insult millions of people and expect them to meet you in the middle on any issues. And the issues are far more nuanced than cheap gas, like the fact that 1.7 million people work in the energy industry and happen to vote in swing states.
The article doesn't mention US citizens specifically, just US adults. But yes, the context and link make it clear it wasn't talking about South America, but even if it were, there's a table in the article that has a list of countries literacy rates. A cursory glance shows Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador as having higher literacy rates than the US.
I don't know how accurate these stats are, but it's interesting nonetheless.
<Nitpick mode on.>
It seems the average IQ of the US is 98, not 100. But even if the mean would be 100, and <100 would be "dumb", it does not follow that 50% of the population is <100.
Actually, since IQ is bounded on the low side and not bounded on the other side, it is actually likely that if the average is 100, more than 50% are below average. But that is not guaranteed. You could have only one dumb person with everyone else >100.
IQ is well known to be normally distributed. One property of the normal distribution is that median = mean, so it follows that less of the population would have an IQ below 100.
Still nitpicking:
Since IQ<0 do not exist, it cannot be a true normal distribution.
It is true that IQ distributions over large groups resemble normal distributions in their core, i.e. close to the median.
What you are essentially saying is that over half the public has a low level of comprehension which simply isn’t true.
You can’t insult millions of people and expect them to meet you in the middle on any issues. And the issues are far more nuanced than cheap gas, like the fact that 1.7 million people work in the energy industry and happen to vote in swing states.