Not to act all elitist here but a civil war probably wouldn't involve Russia vs Europe, if for no other reason than Russia is in Europe.
Also, I don't think all non military white collar workers are liberal intellectual elites, but it seems like the rich guys who start this propaganda have been expanding the definition of LIE to "anyone who got better grades than you in high school" when they pander to people who didn't get good grades in high school.
In truth, the people who have a lot of money have an incredible amount of power right now, and they're trying to consolidate it by enacting favorable laws for themselves. They enlist the rural farmers and blue collar workers with literal propaganda. They play to race, religion, homophobia, xenophobia, and then when you accuse them of being racist, the non racist xenophobes say I'm not racist, or I'm not religious, or otherwise move the goal posts.
The most obvious of their ploys has slays been Taxes are bad, you should cut taxes, especially for the rich! But they've found a new one that rally resonates. Elites are bad. The Clintons are bad. All liberals are like that. That's why trump was a perfect storm candidate, he's one of us! Oh, the snooty liberal elites think he's dumb? How can he afford tacky gold flakes on his wallpaper then? He's a genius business man!