I'm not sure but there seems to be some weird belief out there that, prior to the internet, everyone was some superhuman independent thinker with 100% thought-out political opinions. People in the past were just as dumb as we are now, they just got their information differently.
This and also dumb uneducated voters didn't have much opportunity to get their dumb uneducated opinions out there. The rise of social media has given a megaphone to every point of view, no matter how ridiculous and uninformed it might be. It's created a perception that people today are uniquely ignorant, when this was probably pretty normal throughout history.
