General consensus is that normies are naive, brainwashed, believe everything the news tells them etc, etc... But is that really so? Maybe they are not as dumb as we think they are? Maybe most of them know it's a lie, they just choose to go along with the narrative?

Sure, there always will be some who are genuinely duped, but I'm not sure it's the majority. Like, when covid was going on, I met a lot of normies who publicly went along with the narrative, but privately it was obvious that they are not afraid of the scary virus at all. They didn't admit it out loud (even privately), but their actions were telling that (at least on some level) they know it's bullshit.

I find this thought a quite dark and depressing one. That would mean most of the people are happy to accept a lie and live with it just because it offers them some sort of benefit or simply because it's easier that way. Maybe this is why getting the truth out is not as effective as we'd like it to be. Also, that would mean mass awakening is probably not forthcoming, because there's nothing to awake from. Normies for the most part are already awake. They just don't care.