Well, amongst the English-speaking World the US does have more population than all of the others combined (even including South Africa's 60 million people) so it's kinda undertandable that in an English-language forum sooner or later an American will come and start talking about the stuff within their own life experience.
That said, having lived in Britain for over a decade, I for one loved the joke :)
Honestly, I dont think this is truly stupidity, at least beyond what is typical of everyone else, because intelligence is not the same thing as knowing facts. I dont think being uninformed is really the best word for it either, because if someone tells you something is true that conflicts with what you already think is true, just accepting this isnt really the intelligent thing to do, verifying it would be, and as most people do not have the expertise to verify most things, the best one can usually do is look to those one trusts as a source of information, and if the people that back up this new information are unknown to you but the people you already trust assure you that what you already believe to be true, is true, you dont really have a good reason to abandon that. What I think this is then is that a huge fraction of the population puts their trust in the wrong people, partly due to self perpetuating bad luck (one's parents and family are likely to be the first people one trusts, and thus whoever they trust is likely to seem trustworthy to you as well, and if you are unlucky with what group you are born into and they trust the wrong sources of information, there's therefore a decent likelihood that you will as well), and partly due to the fact that those that wish to intentionally deceive for their own ends are likely to know all kinds of psychological tricks to make themselves seem more trustworthy, and probably will be more willing to use them to manipulate public opinion to their own ends than an expert that just wants to share what they know.
or for a TLDR: I dont think counterproductive political opinions like this are a result of mass-stupidity, I think they're proof that propaganda works, and that under the right set of circumstances, you or I or anyone could be made to fall for them.
Well personally I don’t care that much. Going there is probably also a lot of faff. If it took 5h to get there “door to door” maybe. I understand the people who would like to go there, though, I completely get it.
To be given the chance to visit a safe friendly alien planet inhabited by intelligent species, now that’s something I’d like to do. Probably more for the cultural experience.
The monkey's paw curls. You find yourself in the passenger seat of a luxurious, self-driving car, driving up into the sky with the moon directly in front of you. A speed limit sign flies past; "55 mph"
Nothing quite spoils even the most awe-inpiring experience than being surrounded by people who "just have to" vocalize (worse, as some kind of performance for those around them) how much awe inspiring the whole thing is.
Mind you, I'm an introvert, so maybe it's just me having trouble appreciating socially performative "awe".
You can have a British car but only British people are Britons.
It gets more complicated in history as Britons referred to the Celtic people of Britain, as opposed to the Romans, then later the various other peoples who made up the rich tapestry of Middle Ages Britain: the Anglo-Saxons, the Vikings, etc. It's why the British Isles includes Ireland because the Insular Celts were once all Britons.
Hypotheticals can be interesting but I think they're more interesting when you think about how they would actually work in reality.
Like if someone says "would you give up alcohol forever for £1 million". Surely the interesting part of that question is thinking about how it would work in reality. For example would you be allowed to take the £1 million, invest it, end up with several million, then pay back the original £1 million so you can drink alcohol again?
Everything can go wrong in one way or another, it just depends how high the risk is.
People drive their car every day, even if there is a chance that they wont make it to the next day because of it.
But the risk just isnt felt to be too high in comparison to the usefulness, or people wouldnt drive.
If I knew that it was fairly safe to go to the moon, I would do it, even if it could mean that I dont come back, because it would be a pretty special experience.