Why "YEC"/Fundamentalist Creationism is BAD for America

Very bad, yes. It can even completely stop the proper education of people.Creationism/YEC teaches people to stop learning and thinking and simply accept the answers that are provided (claimed to be from God and the Bible).Real education should never stop.
It's not just for young people
It's an ongoing process that continually adds information as you learn more things.Ideas and concepts are adjusted to work with all the information we can obtain.
This way you'll never, ever end up in a situation where you feel embarrassed about being wrong.
Being wrong just means you haven't received the information yet... therefore you never had the chance to update your concepts about the matter.Learning ends when you get all the information. About everything. Everywhere. At all times.
...good luck with that.Having static, final concepts about things will only ever lead to failure. You will eventually run into new information that doesn't quite jive with the idea you think you understood. The creationist will always be embarrassed when this happens because they are not allowed to adjust their ideas to the new information. As far as they are concerned... they already have all the information. About everything. Everwhere. At all times.
...fat chance. Did you really think that was possible?

Actually, all scientific theories are flawed in this manner.
And, yes, it is better to accept the flawed theories, in this manner, then saying "we don't know."Because it leads to testing.
And the testing leads to better understanding.This is the crucial point:
The 'better understanding' never, ever gets to "right" or "true" or anything like that.
It is always flawed. It will always be flawed.It's just less-flawed.This isn't a weakness in science. It's science's greatest strength - the ability to increasingly become 'less flawed.'But, yes... no matter how 'less-flawed' it gets... it's always "flawed."This is a strange concept, and not very intuitive.
It is extremely understandable to not incorporate it into your thinking immediately.
For some, it can take years to fully appreciate how this works - so your mistake is not to be blamed on you.Here's a quote from an article also attempting to explain this same, strange concept:

quote:

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...when people thought the earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the earth was spherical, they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together.

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The Relativity of Wrong
By Isaac Asimov

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Science isn't about "being right."
It's about making progress and doing whatever-possible to become "less wrong."The reason is that we will never, ever know when or if "less wrong" will ever become "right."
There is no answer sheet to reality.
Every idea, every answer anyone ever comes up with - cannot be checked against some answer-sheet to know if it's actually "right" or just "less wrong than before."
Therefore, we are forever stuck in being "less wrong."We will always be "flawed."