@Captain_Jack_Sparrow @Andii @therightarticle

The research finding that poor education leaves people more vulnerable to the right-wing bias of the media is not surprising.

There's a lot of analysis in cultural history showing that lower levels of school systems equip children with the basic skills needed by industry - they produce 'factory fodder' - while only at higher levels are skills like critical thinking introduced - and, crucially, these higher levels and skills tend to be reserved for privileged classes.

Look for example at the old division between English Language and English Literature in British schools. The invention and adoption of English Literature as a separate discipline can be charted against the decline of Classics. The old class marker - reading Latin and Greek - declined as capitalism elevated the middle class alongside the old aristocracy, and Literature, only taught at private and grammar schools and universities, took over as the marker of class distinction.

It's a conflict in education at least as old as capitalism. When the appalling schoolmaster Gradgrind in Dickens' 'Hard Times' (1854) says "Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts" - he is seeing education as merely a preparation for work, providing the skills needed to boost the economy, rather than enabling all children to fulfill their potential, think for themselves. discover their passions, talents and creativity, and become rounded human beings.

The last thing capitalism wants is people outside its privileged cliques thinking for themselves.

@Jeffrey @Andii @therightarticle The trouble is that many uneducated conservatives see this as proof that higher education is a tool for brainwashing people to wokeness.

(For the extreme off-chance that someone thinking that is reading this: no good university will teach you *what* to think; only *how* to do critical thinking. The fact that the vast majority of people who learn that skill are “woke” is just a byproduct of learning how to see through bullshit.)