@CS- “…Although meshichism falls under the topic of Geula, its controversial even within lubavitch (as you saw on that thread) and is really at the end of the day emuna based rather than a solid hashkafa ( altho there are sources either way.) so id rather keep that out of this discussion as I prefer on coming to common ground…”
Ya did it again. Is he or is he not? One word answer. A) Yes B) No
IITFT- You miss my point. First of all, yes, R’ Shach was regarded as Daas Torah universally, in the litvishe oilam hatorah. That’s why his de’ah on Lubavitch is the de’ah of 99% of the litvishe yeshivos. Ask someone who was around then, when R Shach came out against the Rebbe, what the popular opinion of Chabad was. It was one of passive distrust at the most. He started the campaign against it. So if you share that hashkafa (assuming your part of the aforementioned tzibbur), that’s where your views originated.
To address your actual post- I never said we look at roshei yeshiva as emperor demagogues (the famous maaseh of R’ Shach’s kasha on a R’ Chaim that prompted the famous line “mir zennen talmidim, nisht chassidim” proves that clearly). I mean that his de’ah was viewed by all as definitive daas torah, not that we were his soldiers.