[WS:] I do not know where this idea comes from, but certainly not from anything I ever wrote. For the record, I have been quite consistent on this list linking this "idiocy" to popular ideologies, aka "stock knowledge" in sociological parlance. In the US, the ideologies in question are anti-intellectual populism, widely spread in lower and middle echelons of the US population, and "Randian" meritocracy mythology, widely spread on college campuses and beyond. Both have decidedly conservative, pro-business, anti-government bent, and both have been described rather well in the literature, including that authored by members of this list.
As far as the views that corporate propaganda is solely to blame, you do not need to go beyond this thread to find proponents cf. Shane Mage. He is not alone - this is a part of of the leftist populist myth (which I encounter quite often in the suburban DC) that "the people" can do no wrong, anything that is wrong comes from institutions, media, government, elites, etc.
John Wesley: "in Eastern Europe not everyone was stupid enough to believe that they could ultimately become wealthy."
[WS:] True. They were stupid enough to believe that they were the "Messiah of the nations" suffering for the humanity, and everyone was out to get them, so it made no sense to do anything but to sit on their hands and get drunk. Those who wanted to get rich would go to Amerika, while the rest would stay and kvetch how everyone else had been screwing them up. Since they could not do anything, they could do no wrong either, they were all good people and it was always someone else's fault. Anti-government, anti-communist paranoia was a defining feature of the popular culture - they would not believe if the media told them that 2 plus 2 is 4 and the earth is round. Besides, they were good Catholics, they would believe in any bullshit coming at them from the pulpit.
Again, the main point here is that popular mythologies - either individualistic and meritocratic like in the US, or fatalistic and paranoid like in Eastern Europe - can be very powerful obstacles to progressive changes in the socialist direction. Propaganda can be extremely effective if it feeds into these popular mythologies and steers them in the desired direction, but it does not get very far if it works against them.
Wojtek