Agreed, the ability to create a false dichotomy between “the average American” and whoever is “different” based on income, social status, race, sex, etc is what has kept the rich in power for years. Putin capitalized upon this, used social media to stir the pot, and ended our government, as was the plan since at least 1997:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics

It’s sad how it was predicted around the same time (1995) by Carl Sagan:

I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness

The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance

Part of that celebration of ignorance is what got us here. People less willing to learn about space, math, physics, biology, ethics, or philosophy; and more willing to watch steroid-pumped dudes on joe Rogan, moving their mentality from thinking wrestling is real to thinking the hosts on the latter have any credibility.