Is america wilfully ignorant?

given that america says it has no censorship (family value script advisors for most tv shows (ha ha)) and commercial/shareholder controlled news...as opposed to countries that openly admit censorhip....why do so many citizens lack so much awareness of current issues, geography, issues of comparitive religion, faith, politics etc? surely they are free to discover more of the world, they have access to internet, tv etc....so why remain in the dark about so much? (i'm speaking broadly to prick apathy)