People don't do their own research past the most cursory google searches at best of times, and now google is absolute garbage and the links that are relevant mostly go to massive SEO whale sites written by AI.

That's all before you get to the actual mainstream media sites that spout the same commercial news cycle stories, or spread sensationalized headlines and absolute nonsense. I have managed teams of people and on daily calls people talk about news stories they read like "Did you hear they found another spaceship on mars?" and "They found proof that covid was a Chinese bio-weapon!" and similar statements from working, middle-class people who just browse the websites and social media before work. Most people have very little time to dig into things they see, and now once-reputable sites are just cashing in on clickbait and lies.

This is how most people get their news and information, and it's absolute garbage now. Browse a major news site like MSN and it's worse than grocery store tabloids from the 1980's. And don't even get started about social media like twitter and facebook.

Something happened in the last couple decades that has made people literally just stop caring what's real or not. I feel like it was an attitude deliberately seeded into our culture, and it's now maturing as a society that has lost belief in everything and accepts anything.