I fully agree with your assessment that the education system does not teach critical thinking and that this is the main cause of the current lunacy that is so visible in the US. This is the main tenet of your article and is very worthwhile.

It’s a little bit of a pity that you make 2 tendentious claims that do not withstand the test of critical thinking, namely:

1. you equate conspiracy theories of the Trump camp, which involves believing that Dems are Satanic cannibalistic pedophiles and that the election was stolen with the Democrats investigation into possible Russian collusion. The investigation was no conspiracy theory, it was an investigation, based on multiple contacts that took place between Trump associates and Russian officials and signs that Putin preferred Trump to Clinton. The Steele report was of no or little import to the Mueller investigation. When we apply critical thinking we must have the courage to state the difference between events: The Trump-camp associates itself with absurd conspiracy theories. Also the apparently problematic Steele report was not used by the Democrats as a smoking gun for the Mueller investigation, nor is there evidence that it was a hoax. It is a problematic report with many uncorroborated claims. Wikipedia provides a pretty good overview of this. It certainly does not show that the Left is as prone to conspiracy theories as the right. In fact it is hard to find conspiracy theories on the Left. Although the Left can be biased, it would be strange if they never were, they present their case, mostly through reasoned arguments. To the point that reason appears to have been handed over to the Left and regarded as poison by the right (Chris Wallace seems is a strange customer amidst the Dobbs, Carlsons, MyPillow guy and the likes), and where is the Left’s Taylor Greene, Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley? No, I wish it were not so, but the American Right has become insane in that it regards, continuous lying and overt incitement to overthrow Congress as acceptable. The Left is biased but uses fact and reason to make their case. But guess which votes are easier to win, echoing anger and projecting it on 1 enemy, or discussing the complexities of life and finding solutions to complex issues? Especially when considering that many people are not equipped to understand, let alone, apply critical thinking.
2. The second claim that, I believe, fails the test is that you state that progressives were somehow responsible for changing the curriculum from teaching students to think to teaching students to become professional non-thinkers. This is the first time I see such a claim and you provide no evidence for it. To me it comes across as an absurd claim, which would, at least, necessitate an explanation.

I make the above remarks from a critical thinking perspective and not because I want the right to look bad and the left to look good I have plenty of issues with the Democratic party, just not that they are as prone to conspiracy theories as the GOP nor that they are responsible for killing ‘thinking’ in education.

Just in case we forget: I am in full agreement with the major message of your article: the most important skill we can, and should learn, is: critical thinking, and we should demand that for our children, our children’s children and for a better world.

Thanks for that and fir providing ideas for what we can do. Change happens if we change ourselves.