> but a large group of people simply can't reach the level of critical thinking necessary to fully grasp the nudging and political weaselling they are submitted to.
Isn't that exactly the kind of problem that education can solve? Of course that's a decade long process which doesn't happen over night.
Education can somewhat increase the percentage of people we would consider media literate, but there will always be a group of voters who simply can't reach that level of media literacy — some of whom are literally illiterate (a couple of percent in most modern democracies) and some who are literate, but can't (or won't) fully grasp the subtleties of media manipulation. Those are still a lot of voters.
Isn't that exactly the kind of problem that education can solve? Of course that's a decade long process which doesn't happen over night.