It is a sort of stockholm syndrome, Everyone gets their information from the main stream media (which is extremely biased) and that builds a belief system. Then important information comes along like the snowden leaks (everything you do is being spied on), high level paedophile rings etc etc that challenge belief system and people would rather ignore it than deal with it.
It reminds me of the matrix films, the first one was about how the control system couldn't work when people had the ability to make free choice. The second film was about the "why" as in why you make the choices and that the control system realised that if it could control the "why" it could control choice.