I skidded by in high school and now i feel like a dunce when

Google?

>>18352600
Take a community college course. High School isn't the end all measurement of how smart you are.

>>18352600
>>18352731
Simply googling things hasn't brought up the most reliable resources

>>18352737
Community college would be great, but my circumstances make that nearly impossible. I'm looking for a more self-taught and hopefully cheaper method.

>>18352600
Are there reliable books or websites that I could study from, with out endlessly reading encyclopedias & dictionaries?

Read a book.

https://www.khanacademy.org/
Go on /pol/ if you want to learn about current events.

>>18352769
Yes thank you, I actually have one of my favorite books on my lap, but His Majesty's Dragon is hardly eye opening to today's government.

>>18352772
/pol/ has been where I have gotten most of my information, and I assume that anywhere I look, everything is going to be extremely opinionated or one sided. And after doing the research that I am capable of, i can usually come to see past the opinions and find what's actually happening.
Thank you for the reference, it looks extremely helpful.

>>18352600
If you live in the city, then you should have free access to the public library system. That can be invaluable if you're thinking about learning about a wide variety of subjects, especially ones that you would prefer a physical book for.