I agree with You that there should be more discussion about the “propaganda” we teach our children and perhaps even more private schools. But there is one other thing I would like to draw Your attention to. You say:

“Consider: why do we have public schools? Even if we gained from other kids’ schooling…”

Whereby You seem to imply that we as private individuals should have only those things that are beneficial to ourselves as private individuals. If You really think so, You must be a very immoral person indeed. And if You don’t, then why use such a criteria.

Yours,
Jaakko

This idea itself is a result of relentless progressive indoctrination.

I brought up the case of racism because as far as I can tell, the people who introduced public schools were often people who thought that racism was perfectly all right, and would have been horrified by a black man being president of the USA. That we now have a black man president of the USA implies that the views of public school founders didn’t win out. And when we went from racism-is-fine to racism-is-evil, there was a time where there was a lot more diversity on the view than there is now, which is incompatible with the argument that public schools enforce conformity.

I will note that back in the 1890s there was a lot of diversity about whether heavier-than-air flying machines were possible. Now there’s a lot of conformity in rich countries around the belief that they are possible. Is this conformity because people have come to value conformity a lot more, or is it just because most people in rich countries have actually flown in an aeroplane so the evidence is overwhelming? We can’t just attribute all conformity in belief to a desire for conformity, we need to look at other reasons like the quality of the evidence and arguments.

This is not to say that all modern views are right, for example I notice, Richard, that you didn’t answer my question as to what reason you have to believe that views have become more conformist over time, and this in my experience is typical of people who argue that public schools enforce conformity, they just can’t support their claims (which is not to say that the view is wrong, all it implies is that the people holding this view are holding it for reasons other than because they’ve carefully and open-mindedly considered the evidence for and against).

So I certainly don’t presuppose that earlier views were only accepted because of conformism while present views are accepted because they are right. Back before the Wright brothers there was more space for diversity of views about whether aeroplanes were possible, while whatever reason drives the belief that public schools cause conformity appears to be something other than the evidence supporting it. (There are a myraid of other factors driving beliefs which I haven’t mentioned here because of space issues).

How to separate the quality of the arguments from the fact that everyone asserts their conclusion is an interesting question. I suppose it would begin by examining the quality of the arguments made on these matters in public school classes. But I have no contact with the American education system.

Do you have any reason to believe that views have become more conformist overall, as opposed to example for anti-racist views becoming dominant because of the quality of the arguments for it?