Young Americans score near the bottom of the WORLD on math and science but they’ll be quick to call you an idiot if you don’t agree that carbon is a poison chemical destroying the Earth.
Ask them if they would like to have all the carbon removed from their bodies, if they could.
If they say “yes,” you can enlighten them to the fact that they would be quite dead if they did such a thing.
I once said something similar to a health-food store clerk who was shocked SHOCKED that I wanted to buy some KCl (salt - NaCl - substitute). She said that it had Chlorine in it!!!! and why!!!! would I want that????
I asked her if she wanted all the Chloride out of her body, and she said yes. She had no idea what Sodium does in a watery solution when all the Chloride ions are removed.
That was fifteen+ years ago, and they haven’t gotten any smarter or better educated since then.
But they surely do think that we’re a bunch of stupid old fogies.