As bad as it sounds, I think this does seem to describe the situation correctly.
This is the kind of attitude which helps the individual at the expense of the group. When the group is too dumb to see through bullshit, the people who produce bullshit have a huge advantage within that group.
I've seen this dynamic at play first hand in groups and communities of various sizes. It's just incredible how sometimes individually smart people can form a group but somehow, as a group, they act really dumb and they fall for obvious BS over and over... And the people selling BS within the group keep screwing the group over and over again and group members just ignore all the evidence that they are being screwed. Meanwhile those who are working in the interest of the group are shunned because the group ignores the tangible evidence and believes the BS narratives which paints those people as harmful.
This is the kind of attitude which helps the individual at the expense of the group. When the group is too dumb to see through bullshit, the people who produce bullshit have a huge advantage within that group.
I've seen this dynamic at play first hand in groups and communities of various sizes. It's just incredible how sometimes individually smart people can form a group but somehow, as a group, they act really dumb and they fall for obvious BS over and over... And the people selling BS within the group keep screwing the group over and over again and group members just ignore all the evidence that they are being screwed. Meanwhile those who are working in the interest of the group are shunned because the group ignores the tangible evidence and believes the BS narratives which paints those people as harmful.