Reply #37: The whole country has been dumbed down

[Still Sensible]

over the last half century or so. The MSM values controversy (for ratings) over accuracy, the schools have been so busy teaching to standardized tests (for everything except civics)--not to mention that school boards in some conservative places actually manipulate text book selection by their ideology--and the political strategy of keeping the public in a state of fear has been mastered by some. All of these factors have been around a long time, but they were fully mainstreamed in the GWB years.