Well, yes, but not only. The culture of pride in stupidity is unique. In normal countries, being ignorant and stupid is shameful, and the stupid generally keep quiet because of that. In the USA, stupidity and ignorance is paraded with pride. This kind of anti-intellectualism is unique and quite astounding, from an outside perspective.

Then there are other special factors, like the USA having decided that money constitutes speech. Which is obviously ridiculous. That’s like saying a bird is a fish.

One more important ingredient is allowing the media landscape to be owned by one man and his family. The US oligarchs thought they were so smart, keep a dumb portion of the population, buy the media telling them what to do, and gerrymander so they have the necessary political weight. Dictatorship inside of a democracy, so smart. But along comes the internet and social media and, who would’ve thought, now everyone with money gets to influence these regards. Oops.