People were never inundated by the incessant screens and speakers, the audio and visual tidal wave that has evolved.

It was also hard to coordinate the stew of ignorance, myth, bias, lies, and propaganda across large swaths of society until the last few decades. Print media, such as newspapers, were never distributed over a wide area. Almost all were local. And while bias and outright lies existed, every paper had a different bias and set of lies. Even with radio and later television, there were only a limited number of channels available, and they were regulated to some extent by the government. Get too many complaints, and your broadcast license could be suspended.

With the rise of the internet and especially social media, it's now possible to distribute the same set of biases and lies not just to an entire country, but to the whole world. Combine that with the social engineering behind algorithms at Google, YouTube, FaceBook, X/Twitter, and others, and it has become possible to coordinate and constantly reinforce mis- and dis- information across all of society.

I think Albaby is right in that the electorate today isn't any less informed than in previous centuries, but their lack of information is far more coordinated and consistent today than it has ever been thanks to the immediate and constant communications that the internet has enabled.

--Peter