‘stupidity passed off as common sense’ this has plagued me my whole life.

As a person living in the USA, this. People dont seem to realize that technically, the people are in charge.

While many people do say that to simplify, the singular they has been in use for centuries. If you see a person’s silhouette in the distance and you want to talk about something that they did you will you they/them pronouns for them in most dialects of English.