It's not just your parents, and with respect to them (and props to Mark Twain for the quote) -- "it is easier to fool people, than to convince people that they've BEEN fooled." Some don't want -- or can't fathom -- being woken up.

It doesn't help that some folks today would rather succumb to groupthink, rather than think critically. Thinking critically can be a lonely business...getting you ostracized and branded a conspiracy theorist in most circles.