So _now_ I'm being criticized for NOT being smart, or for NOT graduating from some kind of school.

But, what I had said was: "Possibly one thing it's exceptional in is having more mass shootings and/or more deaths by guns, in civilian life, than other countries have." where "it" refers to the U.S. Keep that quoted sentence in mind, because that's what you were replying to (or attempting to reply to).

Here's some backup: "Of the most brutal are probably school shootings, on the list of school shootings by country, the US surely comes to the first place. Also, the US being at the top of world’s mass shooting by percentage (33%) compared to the population percentage it covers (5%) ..." ( https://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/10-countries-with-the-most-mass-shootings-in-the-world-666161/ )

And all I had alleged was "Possibly..." and "...and/or...". It looks like there's something to it, anyway, regarding mass shootings, at least, as seen in the above quote. I didn't bother to look up "deaths by guns, in civilian life" recently.

So, my sentence is fine. It's your erroneous reading of it which has a problem. Where I referred to mass shootings "and/or" to deaths by guns in civilian life, you replied sarcastically _as_though_ I had instead referred to "homicide rates" which obviously is not the same thing. And even if I were more mistaken, it was just an exploratory comment anyway, starting with "Possibly". You are just primed to insult somebody no matter how reasonable they are.

Does your misconstruing mean that you are "not very smart" or that you should be questioned about whether you did "ever graduate from any school anywhere"?

And is being "smart" or educated supposed to be a good thing or a bad thing this time? You folks flip-flop so much on them, how is one to keep track of what's currently "in" and approved, or "out" and disapproved?

How reasonable would you say it is to judge American exceptionalism based on mass shootings?
Do you even understand the concept of American exceptionalism?
Do you know the real reason why America is exceptional?

Since 1982, a period of 40 years, the total number of people killed in US mass shootings is 1004.
That is an average of 25 fatalities per year. Compared to other mass killers, like drugs, disease, and accidents,
1004 deaths over 40 years is hardly exceptional.

For example, 70,000 Americans died in one year of Fentanyl overdose.
Thank you Joe for the red carpet welcome mat at our southern border.

When I speak of educated people, I'm talking about those who have the knowledge and skills to do serious independent research into any issues, people capable of ignoring media propaganda and boilerplate bullshit to go for the jugular, people with the intelligence to verify reports and their sources.

As for me I am often a "book learned" type of person; however, I have some practical skills or traits, and wish I had more practical skills. We need more than one kind of person, so "book learned" and "un-book-learned with practical skills" are both ok and useful.

One practical skill which I'm proud of is that I can bring down a big tree in a crowded place without damaging property nor injuring anyone. Most people either cannot or will not do it. The most recent one I brought down would have cost thousands of dollars to have done professionally (I did it for free) and they would have had to remove a carport to get to it, and even then they might have caused some property damage (even if they put the carport back right).

I like interactions, that's why I'm on OPP.
I don't listen to music anymore, maybe one song from the past or Bach once in a while, but I listen to talk radio in the car and I just get busy doing things with no time or interest in listening to music. Used to be I always had some sort of music on, but not now. If I really want to hear a song I Google it and listen and then I'm off to cook or fix something or get outside. Or, play on OPP.
Being involved with rock and roll was dangerous with all the drugs and booze, but I survived.

Music motivates me. Like on the weekend when I’m cleaning I got it blaring and having a ball dancing around too.. Or when outside I turn on my surround sound outside and my neighbors get just as involved in doing their yard work as I do mine having a ball dancing on the street as well….

Nothing wrong with not enjoying it now and being involved in other things, heck I’ve got music going on half the time I’m on here…

All that is important is that you’re doing what you want to do when you want to do it!

Taking life away from a human being is not authorized by God for man. God gives us life, and He takes it away. No man has the "right" to supersede God. Ever. For any reason. Apparently, you who do not have faith in God seem to think taking on this decision to end a life is okay for you to rationalize by stating reason after reason why it should be okay to kill another human being. But for every single reason you give, the one thing that remains, that you want to "forget" is that the baby should not be held responsible for the adults' actions. The price of a life should never be for inconvenience, rape, incest or anything except danger to the mother's life. And I question even that as an excuse to kill a baby with its whole life ahead of it.

And in my opinion, it's just a matter of time before science and technology make it possible to see without doubt that life begins at the time of conception - fertilization. We're almost there...so far, this is what scientists are seeing now: During the first 24 hours, once the sperm and egg bind to each other, the membranes of these two cells fuse, creating in less than a second a single hybrid cell: the zygote, or one-cell embryo. To protect his or her bodily integrity, within minutes the zygote initiates changes in its ionic composition, releasing zinc in a spark that induces “egg activation,” first modifying the surrounding zona pellucida blocking further sperm binding to the cell surface. Cooperation between sperm and egg components to achieve replication of DNA, cell division, and growth occurs as maternally (mother) and paternally (father) derived factors in the zygote begin interacting with and chemically modifying each other to initiate the final round of meiotic division in the maternally derived nucleus to enable DNA replication.

That is within 24 hours of fertilization....but they're looking at even those 24 hours in an effort to see deeper into the cells and their immediate activity upon that fertilization. It won't be long before this argument about when life begins will be settled by science.