You know, the function of Western intellectuals in criticizing the dominant authoritarian ruling class isn't exactly a new phenomenon. In fact, it's baked right in to the literary canon -- an unbroken line can be drawn from Plato's writings of (the possibly fictional!) Socrates; to renaissance-era artists inserting insulting portrayals of religious figures into church ceilings; to Machiavelli, Swift, and Pepys hiding effective, scathing criticism behind faux seriousness and allusion. On and on, Kafka, Orwell, Huxley -- even unto public intellectuals like Feynman or Mr. Rogers testifying before Congress, convincing The Man to do The Right Thing not with strength of arms or legalized bribery, but through reasoned argument, and appeal to the mores and standards that tie our culture together.
Without the prizing of artisan skill, without the sanctity of life, without the gloried explorer, how could Feynman have convinced anyone that we can do better than accepting brittle O-rings and dead astronauts? Without the concept of the fellowship of man, a bunch of ancient Greek philosophy about how to act, and kindergarten-level "sharing is good", how could Mr. Rogers have convinced Congress to fund public television?
How could either public intellectual have managed if their politician, ruling-class audience didn't share the values their arguments drew on?
And, like, listen man, we've been noticing and trying to comment on "privilege and oppression of non-Western peoples" since Moby Dick; Heart of Darkness is only 120 years old.
>True liberal arts teaching is almost dead in U.S. academia, it only survives at a few small schools that don't even try to pretend that their curriculum (and indeed, as a rule, their student body as well) isn't "privileged"
Another thing the study of Western thought enables is the easy recognizance of sophistry like the No True Scotsman fallacy. Note this example doesn't even bother to cover its metaphorical tracks, openly using the word "true" without providing any evidence for the claim, or even a single example of "true" liberal arts teaching.