percentage of americans that americans think...
... have graduated from high school: 89%


actual percentage of americans who...
...have graduated from high school: 65%

percentage of americans that americans think...
... own a car: 86%


actual percentage of americans who...
...own a car: 66% (and falling)

percentage of americans that americans think...
... own a house: 65%


actual percentage of americans who...
...own a house: 49% (and falling)

percentage of americans that americans think...
... have a drivers license 83%


actual percentage of americans who...
...have a drivers license 68%^

*this is part of why requiring one to vote is considered discriminatory.

percentage of americans that americans think...
... have read a book in the past year: 77%


actual percentage of americans who...
...have read a book in the past year: 50% (and falling)

percentage of americans that americans think...
... are christian: 70%


actual percentage of americans who...
...are christian: 58% (and falling)

percentage of americans that americans think...
... have a household income over us$25,000/year: 82%


actual percentage of americans who...
...have a household income over us$25,000/year: 62%

percentage of americans that americans think...
... are vegetarian: 30%


actual percentage of americans who...
...are vegetarian: 5%

percentage of americans that americans think...
... served or currently serve in the military: 40%


actual percentage of americans who...
...served or currently serve in the military: 6%

percentage of americans that americans think...
... own guns: 54%


actual percentage of americans who...
...own guns 32%

percentage of americans that americans think...
... make us$1 million or more per year: 20%


actual percentage of americans who...
...make us$1 million or more per year: <1%

percentage of americans that americans think...
... live in california: 32%


actual percentage of americans who...
... live in california: 12%

percentage of americans that americans think...
... live in texas: 30%


actual percentage of americans who...
... live in texas: 9%

percentage of americans that americans think...

... live in new york city: 30%

actual percentage of americans who...

... live in new york city: 2%

 percentage of americans that americans think...

... are gay/lesbian: 30%

actual percentage of americans who...

... are gay/lesbian: 3% to 6% (depending upon which source you cite)

 percentage of americans that americans think...

... are black: 41%

actual percentage of americans who...

... are black: 12%

 percentage of americans that americans think...

... are jewish: 30%

actual percentage of americans who...

... are jewish: 2%

percentage of americans that americans think...

... are muslim: 27%

actual percentage of americans who...

... are muslim: 1%

percentage of americans that americans think...

... are transgender: 21%

actual percentage of americans who...

... are transgender: 1%

as of this writing, more than 1,700 priests, nuns, and other authority figures within the catholic church are reported to have sexually abused children. and those are just the children within the past 60 years or so, and only the perpetrators that have become public.

the church itself has existed for almost 2,000 years. when do you think the abuse started?

since roe vs. wade was overturned until today (11/17/24), it is estimated that 64,000 pregnancies resulted from rape in states that enacted abortion bans.

in the u.s., over us$50 trillion in wealth has been redistributed from the bottom 90% to the top 1% since 1975.*

*according to the rand corporation.

in a majority of u.s. states, undocumented immigrants pay a higher tax rate than the 1% of people who have the highest incomes.

in 2022, undocumented immigrants contributed us$26 billion to social security. under current u.s. law, this is money that they cannot ever benefit from.

in 2022, undocumented immigrants in the u.s. paid us$97 billion in taxes.

martial rape is still legal in more than 3 dozen countries.

1 in 8 u.s. adults is a victim of or is threatened with revenge porn.

of the more than 14,000 chemicals found in food packaging, about 1 in 4 of them (3,601) have been found in human blood, hair, brains, and/or milk.

many of these are known to disrupt the endocrine system and/or to cause cancer.

since 1978, ceo pay in the u.s. has risen 1,085%.

the usd$7.25/hr fed. minimum wage has not risen in 15 years and the tminimum wage for workers who receive tips has been usd$2.13/hr since 1991.

the first official minted coin in the u.s. said "mind your business", not "in god we trust".

a supreme court ruling written by justice antonin scalia found that u.s. police officers have no duty or obligation to protect citizens - even children - from harm.

according to a study of how police officers spend their work hours, the majority spend more time on officer-initiated stops than they do solving crimes. in fact, as much as 88% of their time, and 79% of that on traffic stops.

of those traffic stops, police officers were more than twice as likely to pull over black driversas opposed to white drivers, and only 11% of those stops were because the officer stopped the driver based on reasonable suspicion of a crime.

police departments in the u.s. and u.k. were originally created to control crowds - not to enforce the law or solve crimes.

48% of all species studied have declining populations (only 3% have populations that are growing.)

the current rate of extinction is faster than any of the 5 previous mass extinctions. the most recent mass extinction (not counting the current one) resulted in the loss of 95% of all life on earth.

great apes are on track to lose 94% of their range to climate change by 2050.

some police departments, government agencies, and private companies us a software application called fog reveal to monitor someone's 'patterns of life', including where and when people work and live, whom they associate with and what places they visit, without a warrant.

police officers in the united states who pull over motorists for traffic stops frequently touch the rear of the driver's car as they approach. this is so that there is some evidence that the officer interacted with the drive in case the driver flees (or the officer is assaulted or killed).

the following countries have refused to sign a treaty to ban child marriage:

• iran
• nauru
• palau
• sudan
• somalia
• tonga
• ... and the united states

prior to the civil war, the united states maxed out at 600,000 slave owners.

that's a LOT.

in the americas, covid19 was the number one cause of death from 2020 through 2021. hospitals were overrun and many healthcare workers quit due to nonstop mandatory overtime, sometimes for weeks at  time. so many people died that refrigerator trucks were stationed outside many hospitals just to temporarily store the dead.

you can see the data in minute detail here.

at the time of this writing, the most common sources of microplastics in your kitchen are, in no particular order:

• plastic cutting boards
• microwaveable food container
• plastic ice cube trays
• tea bags (plastic sealant and/or the bag itself)
• white paper cups (made waterproof with plastic)

there is convincing evidence that elephants call each other by name.

if you turned every piece of plastic that we have made as of the time of this writing into saran wrap, it would cover the entire planet.

we haven't done that, but the result is exactly the same: every square inch of our entire planet's surface - even at the bottom of the ocean and the top of mount everest - is covered in plastic.

if you are black or white, your ear wax is likely yellow or brown and sticky. if you are asian, your ear wax is dry and white.

a cruise ship's daily exhaust emissions are the equivalent of one million cars.

united states presidents can only pardon criminals for federal crimes. they can still be tried, convicted, and jailed for state or local crimes.

 orangutans chew up medicinal plants and use them to treat wounds.

the word 'astronaut' actually means 'star sailor' in latin.

only 3% of bird species have penises.

at the time of his inauguration, only one original tooth was left in george washington's mouth.

adjusted for inflation, gone with the wind is the highest grossing movie of all time (us$1.8 billion).

at the time of this writing, the average human being consumes the equivalent of a credit card's worth of plastic every week.

it takes 1,000 years for a plastic bag to degrade in a landfill. this doesn't mean that they go away. instead, they become microplastics (sometimes also called nanoplastics) which absorb toxins and continue to pollute the environment.

1 out of every 3 dead leatherback turtles choked to death on a plastic bag. the turtles eat them because they resemble jellyfish, which are a common food for the turtles.

almost all plastic produced in the u.s. ends up in landfills or the ocean - more than 1,500,000 tons per year. 

this is because many kinds of plastic cannot be recycled. and even when a plastic can be recycled, it is much less expensive to produce new plastic than it is to recycle old plastic.

the companies that produce plastic have always known this, but they deliberately lie about it.

in the u.s., every citizen uses an average of 365 single-use plastic bags per year.

in denmark, the average citizen uses 4 single-use plastic bags per year.

at the time of this writing, humans produce 5 trillion single-use plastic bags.

none of them are recycled.

your gut biome - the microscopic organisms passed on from your parents before you were born - communicates with the rest of your body via a language composed of thousands of bile acids. these acids aid in digestion, regulate your immune system, regulate lipid and glucose metabolism, and can fight scores of diseases.

according to a study by stanford university, first-generation male immigrants are more likely to have successful careers than u.s.-born males who do not finish high school.