It's incredible! The Orange Beast could actually win/steal the presidency again

[CaptainTruth]

75. How did we get here? Remember "the dumbing down of America"?

If I recall correctly (IIRC), & I very well may not, it seemed like the concept became part of common awareness around the late 2000s.

IMHO it's mainly been a Republican agenda, to destroy public education so they could have more ignorant marks they could easily manipulate with their lies. Remember "No Child Left Behind"? Again, IIRC GW Bush submitted budgets 2 years in a row that substantially cut funding for public education. Congress rejected both & restored funding. Then, he suddenly said he cares about education & pushed No Child Left Behind. That alone should have made everyone suspicious, but alas, I was apparently one of the few people who read the law & thought about it's ultimate consequences & realized that if it were to continue to it's logical end it would eliminate about 90% (my estimate) of federal funding for public education, which is exactly what they wanted. And, that's exactly why, as time progressed & the impacts of the law became apparent, the whole thing was thrown out.

Skip ahead to Trump saying "I love the poorly educated."

Take 2 main ingredients:

1) Dumbing down a large number of Americans, so they're gullible to propaganda.

2) Flooding the media with right-wing propaganda, radical right lies.

Stir those 2 things together &, given a bit of time, you end up where we are today.