We're teaching people to put on the affectation of being smart, of having the right opinions, being upset at the right things, listening to the right radio stat

We're teaching people to put on the affectation of being smart, of having the right opinions, being upset at the right things, listening to the right radio stations, hanging out with the right crowd -- with actually being smart. I think you meant without rather than with, and I believe your argumentation could be cleaned up a lot. Overall though, I agree that there has been a loss of content in liberal education. One can observe this in any English or Philosophy department at liberal universities, where it's de rigeur to assign a commentary on Plato rather than read his writings, or instead of becoming familiar with the political and religious views of Lady Jane Grey herself, we read a discourse by someone invested in enforcing gender tallying and political correctness. Not exactly a new observation, but one confirmed by books such as The Closing of the American Mind.