I understand your strong reaction to events in some countries in recent years, but the conclusion is both incomplete and unfair.
People can and do think... This is demonstrable, look at the good things around us in the world.
However, people can be brought very low intellectually and civically by their environment. They are vulnerable to a society that does not guarantee education and accurate information (in traditional or in modern media).
People are willing to conform, especially in exchange for food and opportunity for shelter. People are consummately manipulated by the control of the information around them.
I think you're missing tribalism, which is a fundamental part of human nature [1]. A once (and almost certainly still is) useful tool that makes the mind irrational and blind. There's definitely some stupidity hard coded into all of us.
I understand your strong reaction to events in some countries in recent years, but the conclusion is both incomplete and unfair.
People can and do think... This is demonstrable, look at the good things around us in the world.
However, people can be brought very low intellectually and civically by their environment. They are vulnerable to a society that does not guarantee education and accurate information (in traditional or in modern media).
People are willing to conform, especially in exchange for food and opportunity for shelter. People are consummately manipulated by the control of the information around them.