Yeah, I do. I'm just not sure there's a solution. You can't un-open Pandora's Box.
It seems like there is a major (hypothetical) alternative to media doing people's thinking for them. That alternative seems to involve arming/equipping the people with a potent and versatile ideological toolkit, one that can enable them to process more complex situations/phenomena.
Whether or not this alternative is feasible, I'm not so certain. I'm not even sure what it would entail, really. That said, I think the nearly impossible solution is a step up from the absence of a solution - provided we have the Sisyphian stamina that our era demands of us . From here, it is just a (long, long) matter of refinement.
Just like physical machines make our labor more effective/productive, perhaps theory-machines/devices (models, etc) can optimize our cognitive labor. Actually, that seems to be exactly what theory is best for.
If the global citizen is having to process more and more, do more and more cognitive labor, then they have much to gain from effective theory-tools / theory-machines. Much like if the classical worker has an ever increasing quota of products to make, they would have much to gain from access to physical machines.
This is part of the reason I stress the algorithmic behavior of nature: I think it is possible to make sense of anything. It just might involve creating a few new tools.
If we are trying to figure out how people can more effectively and more independently process the world, it would involve succinctly capturing (to enough of an extent: "All models are wrong, but some are useful") the crucial dynamics of everything, from how molecules effect the atmosphere, to the global political economy, and these models would have to be compatible and configurable into a kind of motherboard theory.
Is it possible to spread effective and thorough theory through the masses, even if it takes an innocuous and simple form? Or will most people only accept prescribed opinions? This is where I am inclined to study how the species, as a macro-agent, behaves, and what it seems to value. That might hold some key to an underlying mass appeal - that is, once we can understand how the species' values irrupt through the individual's values.
I'm not convinced it is Impossible, but I am convinced it is absurdly difficult.
Also, sorry to keep making everything so heavy - feel free to ignore these posts if they only bring headaches. No obligation to engage.