Yes, and the antidote to that is free discussion, which I have no doubt you would not dispute. But, the MSM/Silicon Valley embargo of heterodox discussion that challenges the official narrative is a poison that seeps in everywhere.
People know that they're being gaslit and lied to, and it makes them crazy. They'll grasp onto nutty ideas with no basis in fact, which will take all of the oxygen out of the room to discuss rational objections to the party line. I don't blame folks for donning the tin foil hat sometimes given the embargo of reasoned dissent in mainstream sources.
I do blame them. The rational response to problems getting reliable and accurate information from the usual sources is to find better sources; not worse ones. It's one thing to have a look around at what weird ideas people can conjure up out of pure fantasy. It's quite another to repeat them as though they were fact.
The published scientific literature provides the raw data about what's actually being observed in reality. It does require some background knowledge to understand the context of what's written, but being right is the currency of that community, so publishing nonsense doesn't get you far at all. In fact, it can end a career in a hurry. If you don't have the background to understand the published literature, find trustworthy people who do.
What you don't do is just take the tinfoil hat nutters at their word. Those people are always wrong. Most of them are just trying to sell you something or make money off of you. Some of them have made entire careers out of spreading absolute garbage to gullible people who continue to buy into it despite a track record of roughly 0.000. So yes, I will absolutely blame people who help spread that nonsense. They're making the choice to buy into garbage rather than step back and think rationally. And that's on them.