What's the deal with popular philosophers?

Yes, we should be thinking for ourselves; but one would have to be very confident to expect the successes of the three that you quote. They are famous because they were great philosophers, not because everything they ever said was of the same quality, or that they fit in with modern ideas of political correctness. Bigotry is common; writing a mively influential and elegant Treatise on Government is uncommon. It is for being uncommon that they are remembered.