Your post shows a very idealistic position. It assumes that all ideas come from a legitimate point and are worth discussing.

But guess what, the person that came up with the anti-vaxxer BS just wanted more money, and fuck whoever dies because of it. It's not an issue with lack of education.

BS is easier to produce than it is to refute. That's the fundamental problem

All democracies are subject to propaganda (be either external OR internal)

> were actually serving our citizens and maintaining the level of education and sustaining the standard of living required for democracy to function across most of the population

Both parties are responsible for that, (though I'd say R makes it worse usually) but even then, populations love to shoot themselves in the foot