Disagreement on this topic can best be laid at the feet of socialist public education. the very notion that one can not learn to think critically is the product of unthinking and uncritical mass socialization.
The struggle to become more is the essence of an educated person.
Socialist thinking (Cultural Marxism) has been greatly influenced by the relativism of post modernism. Almost every post modern thinker (mostly Frenchmen) have been a socialist or a communist. With relativistic thought there is no pursuit of truth because objective truth — truth that transcends culture (ahistorical truth) — doesn’t exist. For the post modern/socialist truth is culturally bound, that is, true for that culture at that time in its history. The emphasis placed on language (truth is a mental construct determined by the language of the culture) and radical equality (all cultures and cultural values are equal) erodes the belief that there is a universal, objective truth that can be discovered independent of cultural biases. So the pursuit of truth becomes a moot point, a quaint anachronism from a bygone day (or dark past). What’s left is activism.