One of the things Ive noticed about cabal execs in the ent industry is the believe the American people are stupid because we show cognitive effects of the poisons they've been feeding us.
"Dumbing down" does not adequatly describe the subversion of educational and cultural signalling systems. They think of us ad stupid, condition us to remain incurious.
We are still cabable of absorbing and retaining large amounts of objectivly true information - text books full - if that information if presented in dramatic narrative context in which we all participate, "entertainment" it's sometimes called.