Re: "Where did we fail at school? Or are there clear advantages to the corporate interests when people are gullible and uncritical?", I think there is at least one more possibility here.

Most people are lazy. Given the option to walk or drive, most will drive. Given the option to eat well or to eat poorly, most will eat poorly. And given the option to think or to let someone (or something) else do the thinking ...

Laziness manifests as ignorance (too lazy to learn), self-centered behavior (too lazy to consider others), and rudeness (too lazy to follow reasonable social norms).

This isn't something we can educate out of people. Our education system has institutionalized laziness by not holding kids accountable for not doing their work, giving them a 50 (out of 100) for literally doing nothing, and letting them fall through.

This is certainly something that benefits big business, but hardly something they can be blamed for. There's one born every minute.

I think this comes down to us.

Parents have largely abdicated their parenting roles, not only letting their kids do whatever they want but actively protecting them from the consequences and blaming others.

But even if one had "bad" parents, one could overcome that to become a "good" person by thinking truthfully and consistently, working hard, and developing the self discipline to think critically and to do what's right.

But most of us don't. It's hard. At first. After that, it's just hard to watch (in others).