Yeah, but those people all received a public education (like I did)

Consider the differences in public school quality of experience with regard to property tax, individual performance, class size, and elected school officials, state gov't, and decade of education.

Not saying you went to a great school or were a top performer with extra curricular opportunities or whatever, I just want you to consider the range in education quality in the US.

Yeah, but those people...have access to all humanity's knowledge at their fingertips

As well as disinformation. Without an adequate understanding of how to use it, as is prominent in those who couldn't afford college or were raised before the proliferation of the Internet, this can do far more potential harm than potential good.

Self education? I know a whole lot more than I did when I stopped having a formal education

There are many, many, many life factors that can make this virtually impossible to people, particularly the poorly educated. Again, how are they to decipher right from wrong when wrong is intentionally crafted to discredit right?

For some factors, consider: Poor access to mental health medicine Lack of motivation caused by the above

40 hour work weeks Demanding home life No access to library or internet (or no knowledge of the utility of either beyond paying bills)

I don't think it's right to just assume that people are sheep by default and have to have good educators to be reasonably intelligent

This isn't something we need to assume, and not something I assume. I believe this is widely understood as an explanation of why environmental factors are of the greatest (and best established) predictors of lifelong trajectory including continuing ed, economic success, and general success measures. (https://www.nber.org/papers/w14884) this is a link to the first article I found. If you'd like, I can send a link to my reference doc for a thesis I wrote that had over 60 studies with an aggregate 2 million lives covered with all the same finding, as well as 2 studies that debunked the leading study with the opposite finding.

I want to be clear that diseducation is not limited to schooling in youth but also inclusive of lifelong trainings, exposure to mis/disinformation, propagation, etc. One of the most popular narratives among right-leaning young men today is that higher ed is BAD. Not that it's a suboptimal economic investment, but that it actively harms your ability to think for yourself.

One final thing, I'm not trying to say we should forgive and forget. This is a very real issue and needs to be addressed seriously, and there absolutely is individual responsibility at play. Nuance is critical, though, and like most things the truth is in the middle.

Part of the problem is it's very easy to blame someone else for the state of the world and think their group does nothing wrong.