If you're like me (god forbid), you frequently hear poll results about public opinion and are alarmed by the number of people who seem out of step with, I don't know what to call it, common sense? Then I remind myself about ideological structures and the variety of belief and decide I'm just being dogmatic. Then I see things like this Gallup poll on American's General Knowledge Levels. Ben Smith noted (among other things) this item from the survey:

As far as you know, does the earth revolve around the sun, or does the sun revolve around the earth?

Earth revolves around the sun: 79%
Sun revolves around the earth: 18
No opinion: 3

Then I'm back to where I started. I can't decide if the "Sun revolves around the earth" or "No opinion" are more difficult to grok. Who answers this question "No opinion"?

[via Crooks and Liars]