is it true that my/your ancestors were not bafoons?

spell check said i should have typed baboons which would be an entirely different question that perhaps the blah blah not going to give you the satisfaction of -~right wing..- anyway, the general public was probably lied to a lot then like it is lied to now. but the animal level of intelligence they had was the same we have now. so the good ones spend a lifetime thinking and our own barriers stop us from respecting it in even the slightest. thats stupid. but how can we learn from our ancestors when we are blocked by facts available to the modern general public?