A lot of independent thoughts are not really independent (no interest to argue there is actually zero Independent thought in the world).
For a washed brain (no interest to argue my own brain is also washed or not), independent thought is... you know.
I used to truly believe 2/3 of the population in the world were suffering from agonizing life (indicating mainland Chinese were the only exception), until the window to the world is open and realized that the population I was with contributes to majority of that suffering population at that time.