Dumb. It's not about paying proper attention. It's about not practicing critical thinking. Someone not having the opportunity to not practice critical thinking because they're "too busy surviving" isn't who I'm talking about. I'm talking about the people who simply don't practice critical thinking even when they have the opportunity to do so.
>Also is a strategy of being part of the crowd ( even if it's an astroturfed one ) a dumb or smart survival strategy?
If it means doing things like voting against your best interests, then it's dumb. Certainly not a smart survival strategy at all. Basically the opposite.
If you'd prefer to use a different word than "dumb," then that's fine. But my point is that there are a lot of people who simply lack the capability to comprehend reality in a way that would allow them to make logical, informed decisions when it comes to society as a whole. If you don't believe this, then you haven't interacted intimately with enough people. Despite this, we do have to live in the same society as these people, so they need to "handled" appropriately. The "magic" of royalty (or politicians or whatever) is effectively just a way to cut to the chase; it's letting this people off the hook for not being able to apply critical thinking skills by just giving them an easy to consume policy for them to follow. Without that, these people would be directionless which is not good for society as a whole.