Have we always been this stupid?

Two weeks ago or so I made a post here discussing how stupid half the US is to be swindled by what I called "plastic propaganda ". Basically propaganda so obvious it's dumb.

But then I realized today, for the majority of US history, and history in general, people were DUMB. Our high literacy rates are a pretty modern phenomenon. A lot of it had to do with the cold war and trying to compete with the Soviet Union in performance. On top of that public schools were expanding during 30s-80 (maybe 90s).

What's funny (or not) is this was viewed as a "socialist " idea itself when it first started and it still kind of is. This is why they wanted to gut the department of education. This is why they keep making college more expensive. They don't want people to learn and make connections. The people in the top know this.

If people have more knowledge in what unethical shit they are trying to pull off then they lose money.

Obviously it's less black and white than that, but for the most part this is true. Why do you think the base of conservatives are proudly ignorant? Shoot most of the red states are underperforming when it comes to education.