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Via Annie Lowrey, here’s a Pew poll measuring knowledge of current events:

I guess you can try to draw some conclusions from the fact that Republicans are more likely to know that Greece got a bailout from the EU while Democrats are more likely to know who the prime minister of Great Britain is. But I’m not sure what. What’s more interesting, I think is that independents do better than partisans of either stripe on virtually every question. The differences aren’t huge, but they’re quite clear.

What makes this odd is that independents are traditionally stereotyped as being less interested in politics and more apathetic than partisans. And maybe they are. But for a bunch of disengaged couch potatoes, they sure seem to know a fair amount about current affairs.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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