but had our critical thinking skills to varying levels stunted by shitty education.

I've also noticed that everyone I went to school with who got good grades is a dunce. But everyone who got shitty grades with me was much easier to talk to.

I never have to explain in verbose detail what I mean by every fragment of a sentence to someone who got shitty grades in school. I had a principal at one school I went to who was an idiot.

Every time another group of students stole my hat and there was a coordinated effort to keep it away from me, I had no choice but to go to the principal, because the teachers wouldn't help me either.

Every single time this happened, the principal, with zero self awareness would say "what do you mean ____ stole your hat? did you give it to him?" Then I had to explain in vivid detail each thing that happened for 15 minutes, like I was programming a robot-arm in a factory to this idiot with no ability to listen and think.

George Carlin used to rant about how schools teach kids to just barely be smart enough to pull levers and push buttons, but never to critically think about things or to solve problems they don't have a pre-planned solution for. and that's why I hated going to school, as high functioning autistic man, when I was in school, they always wanted me to fit into a cookie-cutter path they set for me, but I never went along with it.

This one boomer I know refuses to ever use anything except for the official tool you're supposed to use for each thing. So I ask him, "well if this other pair of plyers does the job, why can't I just use this one if I can make it work.?" "IT'S NOT MEANT FOR THAT!" with no good reason for not wanting me to help him by using that other pair of plyers that I can make work.

I quit high school about half way through my 10th grade year one day when literally everyone in the school yelled at me when I tried to talk about literally anything. I just got my stuff out of my locker and walked home.