The goal of conventional schooling is to cut students off from their enthusiasm about everything, not just from demanding better treatment. The two issues are entangled– if people thought they were entitled to respect, they might pursue what they care about, and if they believe they’re allowed to care about what they love, they’d be more likely to try to get the resources to pursue it.

The rot goes all the way to the top. As far as I can tell, a lot of people with very expensive educations don’t understand what understanding is, or why understanding whether something makes sense is important.

I realize this is a sidetrack from how horrifyingly bad things are at the bottom.

I cringe to think of what my perceptions of feminism were before being exposed to feminist blogs.

Exactly. I’d dismissed feminism as irrelevent– repeated exposure to solid thinking and proof quickly disabused me of the notion. Without blogs, I wouldn’t have gotten that exposure.