The most extraordinary case of ignorance you have witnessed

[Blitzwarp]

My grandmother spent over an hour the other day telling us she feels that Islam is an evil religion because of all of the suicide bombers it creates. I first tried to point out that the whole suicide bomber thing generally wasn't taught as part of a Muslim upbringing, but she snorted and carried on. I then tried to point out the situation in Ireland with the IRA, and the Crusades, and she waved her hand and said "well that's all right, that's white people, isn't it?" When I then told her I sat next to a Muslim for three years at university without getting blown up, she changed tack and began to lament how "perfectly good men" were ruining women's lives by being gay. She then insulted my mother's parents because, unlike her, they are totally fine with ethnic minorities and gay people, and which point my mum had to go and lock herself in her bedroom before she throttled her, and Dad and I pointedly said it was time for her to go home.

Be a while before we invite her back around for dinner.

 

[krugerrand123]

One of my friends called another one of my friends nocturnal, and that friend thought it was an insult.

 

[No_Remainders]

In all fairness. Knowing what bipolar is, isn't really a requirement for sitting an English exam. Unless the book he was reading had a Bipolar person in it. But then they'd have presumably learnt it's meaning through reading the book.

Yeah, it was in regards to reading a book with a bipolar person.

 

[astrav1]

People were asking me my views on Gay Marriage, in an argument one person tried to convince me that according to the bible thats a sin, I explained to him im agnostic and he went on to ask if I plan to have children one day and how I will raise them, I told him as politely as possible I'm going to give them the option to choose a religion if they so desire, he was baffled, and then replied "how are going to stop them from being rapists without religion"

I then went on to rape him, he was right, with out religion I can't control my urge to go on rape sprees. Darn

HA! Clever man. As for me, I've only wanted to throw a brick through the face of a feline aquatic rogue.

 

[TrevorGruen]

Well, I hate to bring this up again, and I don't agree with the stereotype that All Americans are stupid, but this is just so worth watching:

suddenly i feel sad to be an american. HOW IN HELL DID THAT GUY THINK STAR WARS WAS BoaTS?

 

[SbE]

double post due to quoting fail. delete please.

 

[CarpathianMuffin]

"What part of China is Japan in?"

Second favorite would be "What's sodomy?"
Never again will there be context for yelling out "IT'S BUTT SEX!" in a class.

To be 100% honest I didn't know what Sodomy was until about a month ago. I knew it had to do with Rape but I didn't know how it was different then just saying rape.

I can understand a single person not knowing. But it was a class of 53 people, and none of them knew what it meant. And these were high schoolers, folks still in the stage of giggling each time somebody mentions a sex act.

 

[Byr0m]

-snip-.

Since you're referencing Leonardo da Vinci, I remember one time where, in the middle of a lesson, to prove I'm not just a science nerd, I'm also knowing in the art world as well, I was talking to someone about the Venus de Milo and they asked me 'What's the Louvre?' and I replied 'Y'know, the museum where the Mona Lisa is?' and he said 'What's the Mona Lisa?'

 

[SbE]

"What part of China is Japan in?"

Second favorite would be "What's sodomy?"
Never again will there be context for yelling out "IT'S BUTT SEX!" in a class.

To be 100% honest I didn't know what Sodomy was until about a month ago. I knew it had to do with Rape but I didn't know how it was different then just saying rape.

You're misinformed. Sodomy is just anal sex, or to be completely technical, any sexual act considered "unnatural" by a particular jurisdiction.

 

[TeeBs]

"What part of China is Japan in?"

Second favorite would be "What's sodomy?"
Never again will there be context for yelling out "IT'S BUTT SEX!" in a class.

To be 100% honest I didn't know what Sodomy was until about a month ago. I knew it had to do with Rape but I didn't know how it was different then just saying rape.

You're misinformed. Sodomy is just anal sex, or to be completely technical, any sexual act considered "unnatural" by a particular jurisdiction.

Oh well understandably the only time I've heard it used is when its to punish someone. So I just assumed.

 

[Rockchimp69]

Taken literally, we are all very, very ignorant of a great many things: The vast majority of history, the vast majority of the cosmos, the vast majority of miscellaneous facts.

It is problematic to, based on a person's lack of knowledge about a certain subject, infer a lack of knowledge in general; even more so to infer a lack of intelligence or wisdom.

For instance, I'd say there aren't that many people who know that the Israelite tabernacle was constructed using the hides of porpoises. Those who do not know this, therefore, are ignorant of that fact. But they are not necessarily ignorant people.

That said, the largest individual case of recent ignorance that sticks in my mind is Fox News' apparent complete disinterest in, and lack of knowledge about, videogames.

And in a perfect world we wouldn't laugh at people who appear unintelligent because they don't happen to know certsin things that other people do. We all do it and we all resent it when it happens to us. I don't think anyone can take a moral high ground about any silly social quirks without being a really boring person.

OT: A girl in my school year back when we were about 12 didn't know who the taliban or al'quiada (i don't know how to spell it) are.

 

[SbE]

"What part of China is Japan in?"

Second favorite would be "What's sodomy?"
Never again will there be context for yelling out "IT'S BUTT SEX!" in a class.

To be 100% honest I didn't know what Sodomy was until about a month ago. I knew it had to do with Rape but I didn't know how it was different then just saying rape.

You're misinformed. Sodomy is just anal sex, or to be completely technical, any sexual act considered "unnatural" by a particular jurisdiction.

Oh well understandably the only time I've heard it used is when its to punish someone. So I just assumed.

It's almost exclusively used in a negative context, so that assumption is quite understandable.

 

[Musiclly enhanced]

either then people say well you wont call me stupid when im the president (im english)
or when my sister thought that that brazil was in spain but in her defence she did get it meixed up with portugal which is inside spain (my own sarcasm there)

or when we wer doing a general knoqlage test at school and this person asked me and my mate if george bush was our priminister and this was in 2011

or when my mate was arguing with an idiot about AC/DC VS dubstep and ofc i was on the AC/DC side and this kid said 'yeah well ther not as old as bonjovi'

 

[WildSeraph]

I was talking with my (16-year-old) cousin the other day. She mentioned she was reading Romeo & Juliet in class, and I started a conversation about Queen Mab (Mercutio's Mab speech being my favourite part in any of Shakespeare's plays). We ended up talking Shakespeare for about half an hour, until she said:

"Shakespeare's pretty cool. Do you think he's going to write any more plays?"

I burst out laughing, and she couldn't understand why I thought it was funny! I had to explain to her that Shakespeare died in 1616. I've heard people say some hilarious things, but my God... I know there are some things that might only seem like common knowledge to me; I found it strange when my 13-year-old sister didn't know who Adolf Hitler was. I was pretty sure EVERYONE over the age of 11 knew that Shakespeare was really old, though.

 

[TheJacoboCube]

I know that the idea of people choosing or not choosing to be gay is a controversial topic, but i think this guy was way out of line.

Some someone at my school ranted to me that he believes, quote, "The idea of gay people was created by the government. No one is really gay, gay people are just like the tooth fairy or santa claus. Also, people who are gay like the attention and there really is no such thing as gay hatred, it is all made up by democrats."

I'm sorry but i think ignorance is anyone who thinks that, 1 the government would somehow morph people into a sexuality, 2 that people who are gay actually want attention, 3 there is no such think as gay (yes he did contradict himself on the who idea if there actually are people who are gay), and 4 that somehow one party would "create" homosexuality...

 

[Divine_Comedy]

I'd recently come back from a holiday to Amsterdam, when one of my colleagues asked about it, she seemed confused and asked: 'Amsterdam? Why did you go to London on holiday?' [I'm British]

After we'd all had a good laugh at her expense, another of my colleagues went on to say 'You're so stupid, Amsterdam's in Germany!'

 

[Mr Companion]

Student in my Sociology class points to a picture of Stalin and says "Is that Hitler?"
Fuckin A plus. I mean, this is not bloody primary school, this is a collage sociology class!

 

[DragonBorn96]

Hvaing a convo about the Illuminati and the credibility of the whole "infiltrator" idea and how he blames them for every famous person who died, even Micheal Jackson. After a long-winded argument he said "Well i'm right and your wrong because *Name which I forget* says so." I proceeded to stand up without a word and leave. My god that really made me angry.