Comment by graycat

One approach to, and reason, for college:

As in

     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicine_show

in the 1800s in the US, there were lots of "Medicine Shows":

     "Medicine shows were touring acts
     (traveling by truck, horse, or wagon
     teams) that peddled "miracle cure"
     patent medicines and other products
     between various entertainments."
     

So, the audiences were getting lied to, manipulated, fooled, exploited, etc., wasting time and money and risking their health.

Currently with some of the media and more, it's the same for the audiences -- fooled.

Well, then: Have a college education with some math, physical science, biology, psychology, literature, fine arts, meet some people and improve understanding of people see some all time great examples of good thinking, and then will have some good defenses against being fooled.

E.g., there is from page 76 of

     Susan Milbrath, 'Star Gods of the
     Maya:  Astronomy in Art, Folklore,
     and Calendars (The Linda Schele
     Series in Maya and Pre-Columbian
     Studies)', ISBN-13 978-0292752269,
     University of Texas Press, 2000.

with

     "Indeed, blood sacrifice is required
     for the sun to move, according to
     Aztec cosmology (Durian 1971:179;
     Sahaguin 1950 - 1982, 7:8)."

(the old Google link is now broken), that is, the Maya concluded that it was important for the sun to keep moving across the sky and to ensure this would kill people and pour their blood on a rock.

Today with some good education, we can look at this claim and right away conclude: Absurd, nonsense, wasting human life.

So, the Mayan audiences didn't have a good, current US college education and were vulnerable to being seriously fooled.

For some of the college courses,

     "Once you have been in a 
     course like that about 
     all you can say is that 
     you have seen it."  

And experience shows that even just having "seen it" means have some good judgment about thinking, separating the good from the bad. So, it's common to say that a college education yields abilities in critical thinking.