I for one ascribe the blame to at least 40 years of pseudoscience -- neoclassical economic theory [1] -- pushed by neoliberal economists. These same neoliberal economists are often backed by the rich (fuck you "Chicago School of Economics" [2]) . For decades they have pushed this narrative of "government bad" and "private sector" good. Taxing the rich only means you punish the people you want to help (middle and lower socioeconomic classes). This pseudoscience gave birth to the godawful economic policy of "trickle down economics".

Decades of:

• defunding public services (by both parties, by the way) to make way for tax cuts for the wealthy
• middle class wage stagnation (ie, take for example the minimum wage and sub-minimum wage for tipped employees)
• decimation of union participation and subsequently power to labor
• cheap money backed by the faith of the US govt and given to the ultra wealthy as a means of extracting wealth from the people -- see private equity

Want to know why many people are easily manipulated? They can't afford the same lifestyle as their parents. Drowning in debt to greedy capitalist pigs. Years of this cycle and once the algorithms detect this, you can be easily turned into cannon fodder for the ultra wealthy.

"hey bro, your life is shit because immigrants took yer job!! Govt trying to inject microchips into you! Join the FrEEdOm CoNvOy!"

Get us into fighting a culture war against each other, when we should be banding together and fighting a class war.

Fuck the billionaire class.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoclassical_economics [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_school_of_economics