The United States is a corporate oligarchy pretending to be a two-party dictatorship pretending to be a representative democracy.
That's the sort of thing meant, I think. There are layers and in this quote the implication is that the fat and happy people are at the outer layer (they think the levers of power of a representative democracy are still valid ways to control the country), and others can see past that into the other two layers behind it.
Most people are happy just to vote. Some people try to channel the overall direction of the vote via party politics. A handful of people know that the election is merely to choose between different means to exactly the same end.
The people can vote to name the ship Boaty McBoatface. The owner will name it something else. It will steer the same course without regard to its name or to the orientation of its deck chairs.
Not only do I routinely see right through the benign bullshit designed to keep most people fat and happy, I also often see past the second layer designed to let the people who see past the first layer think that they can actually "fix" anything.
Without the illusions, I'm just a terrified ant scurrying around in a world filled with uncaring stomping boots and sadistic kids with magnifying glasses.
Being intelligent and ethical is a great advantage in the secondary mythic version of life, but it seems in the real, un-glamoured world, the only quality that has value is the ability to excise essential bits of your own humanity and trade them away for power. Intelligence also helps there, obviously, but without principles, the smartest person becomes the worst monster of them all.