No, as of now you can't trust anyone other than your instincts. History are made by the winners. History can be manipulated. I am a Godly person which means I MUST believe in bible BUT I'm not quite sure if all the articles written there are pure facts or at least written by God. As I've said history can be manipulated. There are a lot of conspiracy going on how the bible was edited. I only filter the things I accept.
I so much agree that people are getting dumber and dumber. I mean look at the trends in social medias, most of it are nonsense. The people in the past thinks greatly for our time today, but we're still basing from the theory of the great scientists before because we can't yet prove it. Theories are still theories. We are not moving, we're still stuck from the knowledge we had before. Wait.... Is it because of us? Or is it because that's what the government or the people who has the "power" wants us to do? To be puppets.
By the way I would like to add greed in the guide for some people's perspective.