Wonder if it was ever thus? Isn't it possible that the 'common people' of the world have always paid but little attention to facts and have always relied instead upon their own widely disseminated beliefs? That is the impression we have always been given of the 'peasantry'.

Maybe human beings tune out everything that does not seem to impact themselves. When people consider themselves to be powerless?

As I've said many times before, Future Shock by Alvin Toffler seems more and more pertinent.