Why people are idiots

I think I speak for everyone when I say "people are bigger idiots now than they ever have been."  If there were a linear graph of stupidity, I'm fairly confident there would be a pretty steep positive slope.  So the question is, why?  I blame the internet, at least partially.  The internet has given the loudest, and usually dumbest, person in the room a soapbox to screech off of.  See: Rush Limbaugh.  Problem number two with the internet-- it makes people lazy.  Before everyone was tangled in the interweb, people had to do things.  I mean, look up addresses in a phone book, read the paper if they wanted to know anything that was going on at all.  For Christ's sake, now people don't even leave the house to shop!! We're so goddamned lazy that we don't even go to the store to buy garbage we don't need!!!!  If people are too lazy to do that, why are they ever go to go through the effort of challenging their own beliefs or thinking critically about anything? The internet is ruining this country.  One maladjusted tween at a time.