Hello! I have a question regarding a topic I see come up on here often.

It is often pointed out that it is ridiculous to think that there is a philosophical daoism as well as a religious daoism, and that really they are the same thing. However, I see this myth come up constantly - and although I know that it is wrong I do not understand how it is wrong. A couple examples of seemingly good sources perpetuating the 2 different daoisms:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIW7HLHh7ys

"It is important to remember, in this connection, that we are speaking of the so-called "philosophical" Taoism and Zen, as opposed to the later "degenerate Taoism" and "institutionalized Zen" of more recent times." (http://artsites.ucsc.edu/faculty/lieberman/zen.html)

In the latter quote, he makes a similar judgement upon modern zen being somehow wrong. I assume that he is wrong and that this is western biases coming in to play, but I have a very hard time knowing who to trust now. So many scholars and youtubers and podcasts perpetuate things that I am told are wrong, but I am not educated enough to be able to know when I am being duped! I am approaching university soon, and I am afraid that even at university I will be taught a wrong buddhism and wrong daoism! If someone could explain how to approach this dilemma I would be most appreciative

Thank you :)

Edit: Also, this is a nice text I read that helped me know that there is a problem. However, I am still confused on the matter. https://faculty.franklin.uga.edu/kirkland/sites/faculty.franklin.uga.edu.kirkland/files/TENN97.pdf