The dark side of the internet

Bill Andrews writes in the August issue of Astronomy Magazine, "People confuse their inalienable right to their opinion with a fictitious right to be right, and it's growing increasingly acceptable. The level of science education in this country has apparently sunk so low that a significant portion of the population doesn't even know how to distinguish verified data from personal opinion, and no one seems to care. It doesn't get get more basic, or scary, than that."

Is the internet, with websites such as Reddit - which elevates popularity and opinion over fact, part of the problem?