There is a lot of skills and knowledge

 There is a lot of skills and knowledge one learns in higher education which is difficult to make up for if you do not take it.

You are confronted with a myriad of ideas and concepts, you are forced to think critically, and redraft redraft redraft.

Sure, there are dumb people who go to college. Sure there are smart people who dont. There are usually outliers. But regardless you learn a lot about the world you just wouldnt otherwise gain a true understanding of. You pick up important lifeskills, and even though there is a lot more for you to learn even once youve finished higher education, you will be able to continue drawing off of this background and these life-skills.

Stupid is also a relative term. Einstein would be stupid compared to “the supreme galactic intelligence.” Even a naturally gifted person can become stupid if they become complacent and don’t expand themselves and their knowledge base.

The thing about having more education — you end up knowing more. You can connect things better and more intrinsically. You can pick apart details and misinformation better. Granted there are some limitations based on the individual and their breadth of study, but this is in general terms.

We go to doctors for healthcare. We go to climate scientists for understanding the climate. We go to farmers for farming. We seek out people who are better informed on issues to have clearer insights into them. If you never recieve higher education, then naturally you are probably missing out and competing beneath the level of your peers.

Or putting another way, it’s like being in the first 10 levels of a rank-based game. You never leave and you never learn deeper skillsets. You never learn deeper tactics. You never learn about larger strategies. Occasionally you get a lucky drop, but you dont know how to use it. You may even mistake it for being useless and discard it. You simply lack experience in many aspects of the game. — then you compare this with a pro-player. Someone who competes in tournaments. This player has likely read numerous strategy books on top of having inate understandings of the game. They understand the deep fundamentals in the game. They understand how all the actions work and how to truly evaluate what is useful and worthwhile. That same item the former player discarded, not comprehending how to use it, this player turns into a top-tier weapon. They use this information and their at a much higher level.

Of course a pro and a noob are extremes. But you typically spend at least 4 years in undergraduate education. 4 years someone without that education doesnt have. 4 years of tear-your-hair-out assignments, tests, essays, thought problems, practicals. Youre forced to use your head a lot and in deep and greatly varied ways that you dont get otherwise. The years of higher education serve as an important and dynamic foundation. And sure, you might learn things which you won’t directly find useful. But you also did more than learn those things themselves, you learned how to think at a higher level and how to make many new connexions and revisions and apply those dynamics even in very different circumstances.

Tl;dr — higher education is education. And its as difficult to go back to ignorance, perhaps even more difficult, than it is to see ahead regarding how far behind you are. A wise saying: the more you know, the more you know you don’t know. The more you know the more you know there is to learn. And the higher the standards you hold yourself to.

Protip: there are plenty of people who arent “liberal” who think this. True, educated people tend to be liberal due to their wide experiences and exposure. But there are educated moderates and old-fashion conservatives. These people also typically oppose trump, and arent “liberals.” Also, trump talks like a drunk fourth grader, consistently lies, doesnt understand his office or the affairs of the country, makes fun of his own base. He acts utterly petulant. He’s the kind of person no sane, thinking person should have voted for at any time for such an office. The world laughs at america. Many voters voted simply out of spite and malice/fearmongering tribalism coupled with ignorance of the issues. This is unacceptable for anyone actually looking out for the country and it’s citizens.