People only get a tenth or eleventh grade reading level education, on average. But everyone is required to navigate a world ruled by those with the means to pay the most highly educated to engineer extremely complex rules designed to protect their interests -- mostly property and power.

Propaganda lives in the space between what most people can understand and how the world actually works. People are desperate to obtain an understanding of the world that gives them an advantage over others, or at least just enough to survive and avoid destitution.

They will grasp at anything that promises to help them individually outcompete the collective masses.

It isn't just that people aren't trained to avoid being deceived. They are actively willing to be deceived if they think it will help them specifically. The lure of secret insider knowledge is strong.