Earlier quoted context omitted.
For a while, I had thought that the modern world had finally transcended the grip of medieval-minded ignorance. But the medievals didn't go away, and they eventually organized and voted and, in the U.S., got lucky with a system that disproportionately allocates presidential voting power, allowing the GOP to win 3 out of the past 7 elections despite having won the vote only once.
Nation states are an invention of the 19th century. Give the Middle Ages more credit.
Surely the U.S.A. (a 1776 result of the scientific Enlightenment responsible for every single improvement to human life, assuming that you don't want to be a disease-ridden illiterate peasant lucky to make it to your 30's) meets any reasonable categorization of a nation-state.
46% of Americans believe that humans were created in their current form sometime in the last 10,000 years by a Bronze Age deity fond of stoning. Don't even start trying to convince me that the medieval world is behind us.