Right wingers couldn't trust the media because Fox News told them that all other media, the so-called liberal media, was lying to them.
Then they convinced people that liberals were "the intellectual elite." They convinced the uneducated that being educated was actually a bad thing, which didn't take much of a push.
So, liberals are liars, intellectuals are liberals and therefore liars, and therefore you can't trust any expert on anything. You can only come here for the truth. We're Fair and Balanced.
From that point on, the truth for half of this country has been whatever Fox News wanted it to be.
And the soccer moms on Facebook who did their research on the shitter that morning perpetuate the bullshit to their echo chambers. Everybody feels good, and validated, and part of the in-group, and see, those other people are idiots for going to college because we ended up smarter than them anyway.
And now this mob of well-armed morons is so well-conditioned and intellectually malleable that the bad guys really shouldn't have to worry about any election for the next generation. Maybe ever. Hell, Joe Rogan has the younger generation on board already.
I don't see how any of this is fixable. The continued dumbing down of public education all the way up to the university level will shift the numbers even more in their favor. I think we're all going to be old men and women someday lamenting what this country once was, most of us from abroad.