Critical thinking must be taught. I stand by that in spite of a lot of educated people not being able to critically think.
Obedience and rebellion are human qualities of a social nature. Both interfere with critical thinking.
Not only must critical thinking be taught, it requires a mental disposition that has a reasonable delight in questions, and some human meat packages question nothing and have no desire to.
The natural tendency is to unquestionably eat the corn pone that is provided to you. Or to spit it out and deny it has any value at all.