And to season all that, the fucking business of telling gullible people buying a ridiculously overpriced degree in something that don't even sound interesting will be the key to a nice stable life.

one big OOF he US Government has made is that by defunding education and not allowing people to apply what they’re learning, they de-legitimized EVERYTHING. science denial goes hand in hand with people learning stuff in school that are just WORDS to them.

i would argue otherwise, the de-legitimization itself comes from capitalism, as every anti-scientific argument is always accompanied by how "X person just wants money" - the reign of self-interest and the profit motive are the biggest culprits of our distrust in each other and whatever institutions we have

but education does work as a counter to this: despite knowing that companies lie for profit, you're smart enough to not let that knowledge turn into conspiracy theories

so it's not really that lack of education causes science denial by itself: it just keeps you from creating this barrier