Most Americans have never had critical thinking as part of their educational curricula. If you're very lucky you'll cover critical thinking skills as part of AP English in highschool, otherwise that's a second semester course your freshman year of college. Most Americans can't look at a particular piece of media and unpack what it's saying and why it's saying it. Americans are ridiculously easy to manipulate as a result.
Yeah 34 was essentially a hit on one particular AIDS foundation in LA that's politically active. Landlord associations took offense and went after them with 34
Check this shit out: https://calmatters.org/california-voter-guide-2024/propositions/prop-34-patient-spending/
As usual voters fell for the packaging rather than actually reading about the effects.