I think what should be recognized is that a significant fraction of the population is becoming increasingly unmoored from reality. This is happening in increasingly obvious ways, yet neither they nor any of our institutions are able to take note of this.

This is essentially the definition of psychosis. As described by wiki:

Psychosis is a condition of the mind that results in difficulties determining what is real and what is not real.

I'm not saying this to slam any of these people since they aren't here reading this anyway. For you and me and everyone else still of sound mind, the more completely and consciously we understand these huge societal problems at work, the faster we'll find our way out of them.

So no, they're not "dumb", nor are they going to "snap out of it". Stop thinking that. It hasn't helped and it isn't helping.