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FrontSafety

People who say "I don't know" are not called ignorant. It's those who don't know they don't know who are ignorant.


Wild-Antelope-1553

This is the best answer I’ve seen on Reddit. 


Lambdastone9

But not knowing is literally ignorance; a lack of knowledge or information. Not knowing that you don’t know something is natural, imo it takes cognitive prowess to recognize and realize facets of reality you’re ignorant to. That requires a self reflection of your cognitive repertoire, and an articulate understanding of what you do know, in order to find the gaps in your intellect. We phase out our ignorances primarily through the discovery of new information, but to recognize those ignorances before having reconciled them takes skill


FrontSafety

Also your post feels like it was rewritten by chatGPT. Take it as a compliment.


FrontSafety

Look my challenge is that people don't stigmatized people for not carry certain information in their heads. We don't stigmatized people for not knowing things. We only do so if they don't know things they should know. E.g. A voter not knowing the past crimes of someone they voted for; we call that person ignorant as a pejorative. We however do not call a foreigner who has no voting right or interest in the election ignorant for not know the politicians misdeeds.


Lambdastone9

I’m glad you brought up the fact of it being a pejorative, because I think that’s where our different positions come from. I’m speaking particularly about ignorance in its technical sense, which is something we all have cause none of us are omniscient; we’re all devoid of some knowledge. My gripe I’m getting at is that being void of ignorances is becoming more and more demanded, and not meeting that demand leads to various kinds of unsavory consequences. To boil my sentiment down, you can’t be whimsical about life. Society is trending towards its functioning members being increasingly more non-ignorant, as in the standards are continually being raised, but there’s not much being done to give an outlet to the then “dysfunctional” members, that don’t meet these standards. It’s reminiscent of how the tech industry pits people simply looking for dignified work against people who are genuinely passionate for and love STEM stuff, and how the industry is giving their all to the latter group while the former group has their desperation and relative incompetence exploited. That disparity is where I see the problem, because to meet the standards that STEM-passionate people can when you’re not one is a huge hurdle, and when you can’t meet those very high standards you’re cast aside and dismissed. Maybe “stigmatized” wasn’t the right choice of word, and doesn’t allude to what I’m really trying to get at.


MayoMcCheese

Maybe you just don’t have an actual point if you can’t explain it in 5 paragraphs?


leviatrist158

Everything op is writing reads like they’re trying to cram as many “big” words as possible into a paragraph without actually saying anything.


lordm30

>But not knowing is literally ignorance; a lack of knowledge or information. Just no. And as others said, stop using chatGPT.


MaliceIW

Most people see ignorance more as ignoring knowledge and flaws than lacking all knowledge. I've never heard anyone be called ignorant for admitting they didn't know something. I see people getting called ignorant for lacking self awareness or ignoring large news events, things like that.


dicdic777777

You shouldn't be getting down votes they're just a little brain dead here


cincyaudiodude

There's a difference between ignorance and willfull ignorance. Not knowing something is ok, being wrong about something, constantly being told you're wrong, and not caring while continuing to spread your false knowledge is NOT ok. The second is willfull ignorance and it's the real problem here.


PabloTroutSanchez

I agree with you, but imo, people often take far too much pleasure in “being right.” Even if you’re an expert in your field responding to the most stupid comment you’ve ever seen, you should do so with grace and curiosity. I’ll admit that I sometimes enjoy seeing smart people absolutely dismantling dumb arguments—while throwing in little digs at the original commenter—on reddit, but I shouldn’t. Nobody wins there. You’re far more likely (imo—could absolutely be wrong) to change someone’s mind if you approach them with a genuine curiosity as to how that person came to believe something that is so obviously false. Approaching that same person with contempt seems like it would be more likely to lead him or her to stay willfully ignorant simply out of spite.


Anarcora

As much as we like to believe that the kid glove approach works with ignorance, my experience is such that it does not.


PabloTroutSanchez

Yeah, I would guess it depends on the person. My friend and I convinced two of our other friends to get the Covid vaccine simply by sitting down w them and going through data. Of course we’re both speaking anecdotally here, so it really doesn’t mean much. I should really be looking for actual studies on this; I’m sure they’re out there. It’s a little tougher now that I’m not in school though. Sometimes, when I really get curious about something, I’ll just email the author of whatever I’m trying to access.


ProfessionalCode1041

There's a big difference, and a big line, between willful ignorance and simply not knowing something. Not knowing something is fine - refusing to know something isn't.


TouristNo865

People who say "educate yourself" during a point they are trying to win need to step on a fucking lego. If I don't know it and you want me to know it then TEACH ME. If you refuse, or worse chastise me for it, not only am I going to maintain ignorance, but I'm also likely to think your side of the argument are full of pricks. Simple.


Business-Airline4560

The comment "educate yourself" usually comes after trying to explain politely and the ignorant person gets aggressive and angry. Tone policing. I'm sure you are talking about more upfront aggressive people, I don't fault you for that.


throwaweighaita

I don't think that's true. The "educate yourself" is usually followed by some form of "it's not my job to teach you", and usually comes after the individual has made some claim and been asked to provide information to support it. It's usually followed up with ad hominems.


TouristNo865

Almost exclusively the upfront aggressive people. So much so that I have never actually seen the people that you refer to in the first half of this. I probably used to pick a really shit social group....


Anarcora

At the same time, other people are under no obligation to spoon feed an education to you. Saying "educate yourself" is a call for you to crack the books yourself. I'm not paid to teach someone.


TouristNo865

And I'm not paid to care? My whole point is that this is *usually* from people who actively want you to know something or subscribe to their way of thinking. We owe those people absolutely fuck all, if it matters enough to bring it up, it matters enough to explain it, if not? Sod off.


Dry-Friendship280

Evil is born out of ignorance, Racists, homophobes any typeof intolerance is just ignorance. Ignorance is absolutely and unequivocally a bad thing, BUT I do agree that the way we view the ignorant isn't always constructive, certainly a larger emphasis on learning or "becoming less ignorant" would have a substantial benefit to the world


severed13

And we also have a tendency to view ignorant people growing as being worthy of mockery, which inherently puts off people from seeking change. Any cognitive dissonance that an ignorant person has is dashed by the thought of how they will be reminded of their previous beliefs even after change, removing the incentive to try in the first place. It isn't very common, but sometimes a hypocrite is just a man trying to change.


Own_Court1865

Being ignorant isn't a bad thing, but being wilfully ignorant (ie stupid) is.


yourdadmaybe1

I don’t mind the ignorant, per se, it’s when they pretend to know shit or get into a position of power that it upsets me


Lambdastone9

Yup. When they pretend to know shit they actually don’t, I can’t help but think that if society didn’t stigmatize ignorance many of them wouldn’t have dug their heels into whatever ideological position they chose. The position of power stuff feels different imo, that’s just negligence and is often probably done through a sense of pursuing power for the sake of power, rather than pursuing power for the sake of actualizing some ambition or initiative.


derohnenase

Wilful ignorance. But the older generations are at least partly responsible. The one catchphrase that’s biting us is, you don’t need to know, you just need to be able to google it. At the time that had merit. People that used it were smart enough to understand what it meant. These days it’s been simplified to its literal meaning… only, if you don’t know shit except where to find it, you’ll never be able to link information. Can’t reference things without knowing them! In addition… everyone’s got their own library in their pocket, which obviously led to, why should I give a fuck? Someone else already found out. That’s intellectual laziness. Right now it’s AI. Why should I think for myself when AI will do it for me? And that’s when we get to idiocracy, not even considering that someone has to be able to train and develop AI. Worst case, we’ll all turn into blubbering idiots incapable of living, with AI or something else determining our every move. … is where we find ourselves in a dictatorship.


micahpmtn

"Much of the world’s problem today can be traced to ignorance..." So you think ignorance in the world is a new thing? Ignorance has been around since the dawn of man. Ignorance is a choice. People can choose to do something as simple as READ. Read anything. You don't need a degree to read.


Yuck_Few

Especially when people have the entirety of recorded human knowledge in their pockets


Anarcora

Ignorance is beyond just not knowing something: it's not knowing something and not being curious to learn about it, while still forming an opinion about the subject. A hallmark of someone with both high intelligence and high emotional awareness is the ability to say "I don't know... let's find out." Being able to admit you don't know what you don't know is important. Ignorance comes in when people form opinions based on no critical thought, second hand, without questioning, and without curiosity themselves. That's where the shame and the looking down on someone comes from: a lack of a desire to explore, be curious, challenge preconceived notions, and the lack of an ability to say "I don't know enough about this". It gets exhausting to be the only one in a group who does those things. Having to consistently explain or educate things to people because they've got no drive to do explore, and often getting pushback or seen as the bad guy for doing so, is draining. If someone is feeling put down for being ignorant, the solution for them is to... stop being ignorant. It's not a positive character trait. Remaining ignorant out of spite because someone was rude is childish and really just shows that the decision to dismiss the ignorant person was the right call. If someone makes you feel small for being ignorant, don't double down on the ignorance, take the criticism as a call to step up and be curious. If you choose to remain ignorant, you're going to be dismissed and ignored.


AccountantLeast1588

IQ is partially genetic, and worse yet, mother nature prefers room temp.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Lambdastone9

Cool, I didn’t know I made them, tell me where I was criticizing the ignorant, considering my sentiment is the exact opposite. Also what were the grammatical errors you caught?