This story reminds me of something our good friend Hesher — of Hesher and Spore who run the show Boiler Room on Alternate Current Radio — is always talking about: prescribed "swim lanes" within society. For certain topics or trains of thought or information, there's a prescribed swim lane. It's okay to deviate from the norm a little bit on either side, so long as no one goes outside the prescribed swim lane. Taking the analogy further, many people inherently know deep down that there's a whole ocean outside of this swim lane, but in the name of safety or convenience, of not "making waves",  most people stay inside the swim lane anyway. While it may be more comfortable, this lane provides a very narrow slice of a worldview that requires a great deal of faith in people and systems which have not earned it. Such limited sight and the ignorance it produces makes control a lot easier.

Speaking of control, it doesn't help that the media is so utterly controlled at the top that we just keep getting the same recycled story lines and tropes presented to us on a loop generationally. It's to the point that Snopes even felt the need to "debunk" the idea that Walt Disney's will stipulated the company is required to remake the same Disney movies every ten years.