Throughout my school-years I've been taught, that it is important to think critically.
If you can think critically, then you can think for yourself, and then you won't be so easily fooled - so the reasoning went.
As I got older I gradually realized how insane this idea really is: No matter what, you must always remember to criticize.
What I found out - especially at university - was, that everybody felt that thinking critically was so important, that it really didn't matter if you understood what you were criticizing or not. It was all about thinking independently - and everybody assumed that being critical of everything was the only way to 'not letting yourself be fooled'.
The foolishness was, that nobody even thought of criticizing the whole idea of criticism as independent thinking in itself. Everybody just went along with it. Why? Well - that's what we were taught, wasn't it?
So much for thinking for yourself.
What it really leads to is no one being able to think at all. Everybody is so afraid of being fooled by 'dangerous ideas', that they don't even dare to understand the things they fear being fooled by.
'Cause that could lead to, like, oppression man.' Oppression of every man's right to 'think for himself', ie. to be freely able to dismiss anything, without understanding anything about it, that is.
- 'Equality' follows naturally: Nobody should be fooled by anything = Every individual has an absolute right to fool himself.