A general rant about the assumptions of ignorance

The BBQ Pit
1

I really hate it when people simply assume I don’t know something, just because it seems obscure to them. Particularly when they start a sentence with, “You probably don’t know about this…” Oh yeah? Try me! Sure, I might not know, but rather than jumping to conclusions, it would be a little more courteous to rephrase it as “Do you know about?..” which would imply the speaker isn’t sure the person knows or not.

I make it a point to know as much as I can about the people around me. That includes their interests, personal idiosyncrasies, and their cultural backgrounds. It is the height of embarassment for me to draw an assumption about somebody that I am totally off-base about.

I noticed a lot of people don’t assume I don’t know in terms of ‘helping’ me learn/understand things; its more of a “You probably don’t know because you are caucasian” or some such nonsense. I thought the whole benefits to diversity were to create an environment where people learn about what makes each other unique, not to alienate each other and stay in their own insular cultural cliques.

2

I’ll bet you didn’t know this, but debt and usury is the incubus which weighs most heavily on the agricultural resources of Turkey.

3

I get that a lot too. Because I am over sixty and a retired English teacher, people make a lot of assumptions about me that are so far removed from who I am and what I am about.

4

Far out, no kidding… I assumed you were a mid-twenties uni student. For real! And all I got that from was your name! :smack:

I really shouldn’t make assumptions. It makes an ass out of you and… err… umption.
Max. :smiley:

5

Funny, I always do just the opposite. That is, I always assume that everyone but me knows everything. So I start out sentences “You probably already know this but…”, when I’m about to impart information.

I don’t know why I do this though.

6

You never taught in Southern California, did you?

7

Sweet heavenly vapors! I thought I was the only one.

I have a couple of people on this MB who specifically, every time they post in relation to a post I make, make a whole shitload of assumptions about me, about what I’m intending, what I know or don’t, etc., all without basis.

I tried to use the ASSumptions and the ASS U ME paradigms to explain to them what they were doing, but I got reported as a “bad post” and the mods censured me. (Wonder who reported me… I won’t make any assumptions, but… there are some things that are obvious.)

Anyway, I’ve learned to just ignore them; arguing it with them gets more twisted than a Michael Moore docufucktory.

8

Isn’t it possible that they’re actually just trying to be polite? The sentence starter you mention isn’t one I’d use, but I can imagine that someone might think it was better to start by reassuring someone that they weren’t expected to already know whatever is about to be said. That way the other person wouldn’t feel stupid if they really didn’t know about it already.