Spot on. The US education system is fairly elitist. It supports the top 5% and neglects the lower scoring pupils. That way (and with imported brains), the US can maintain a high level at academia while at the same time affording a fairly bad average education level of the total population in comparison to some other industrialized countries. The university system is also very elitist through student fees, Ivy League schools, academic societies, etc.
That's why it's such a weird contrast for us egalitarian European schmucks when we get to know US colleagues in academia, who are extremely professional and well educated, while watching the daily news makes us think that the majority of US citizens must be mentally retarded and suffers from chronic lead poisoning.
>the majority of US citizens must be mentally retarded and suffers from chronic lead poisoning.
You probably think we only pay attention to news from the US but the Brexit vote is merely the most recent example to show that Europeans can be just as manipulable and unintelligent as Americans.
Brexit Vote is an indication people are not drinking neo-liberal kool-aid. You and I might have benefited from Internationalism, but not every one and they are making their voices heard. They may not be as sophisticated as you, but their concerns are from economic insecurity, either solve or at least empathize rather than reach out to some stupid propaganda play-book and stamp them "bigots".
That's why it's such a weird contrast for us egalitarian European schmucks when we get to know US colleagues in academia, who are extremely professional and well educated, while watching the daily news makes us think that the majority of US citizens must be mentally retarded and suffers from chronic lead poisoning.