"Yet it seems, at times, bizarrely unaware that many of those notions were meant to be dystopian or satirical -- dismal visions of where our worst and dumbest habits could lead us."

They are very aware. They're just counting on the bulk of John Q. being unaware, because they've steadily been dismantling the already woefully inadequate public school system and replacing people reading books with short-attention span, dopamine hit inducing low-brow social media and television programming.