A lot of people are really quite stupid. On top of that, they’re in social groups (ie: tribes) that have shitty values.

Long term investing in education would help. So would things like removing lead from the environment, and fixing healthcare and labor laws so people aren’t so stressed all the time trying to survive.

Something like half of US adults can’t read at a 6th grade level (Snopes says this is basically true but there are complexities www.snopes.com/news/2022/08/02/us-literacy-rate/ )