little froggie, my response was to a post by old man saying a BLACK hat might be the only respectful way of dressing. He didn’t say any hat, he said a BLACK hat.
R’ Rakeffet’s point of chassidim “conquering” America has more merit than you think. Many things that the yeshivish world does today come from Chassidim. Separate seating at weddings? That’s from chassidim. It didn’t exist 50 years ago outside of chassidish circles. The extreme separation of genders? That’s from chassidim, and they continue to separate them further.
His point of Daas Torah didn’t mean that people didn’t respect Rabbonim. He meant that people didn’t fear to question them. Not by acting out against what they said. If a Rav gave a psak that they didn’t understand, they would argue in learning! Nowadays, if someone dares to ask a question on a psak from a major posek, the response is usually, “Who are you to argue on Rav Ploni???” There was no blind following, nor should there be!