In this thread, Badtz Maru asked for help in “fighting ignorance” against a clearly insane conspiracy theorist…you know, the “GWB was responsible for 9/11 type.” :rolleyes: In one of my replies, I intimated how sometimes, fighting ignorance was a battle you can’t win. And I was going to give my own personal example, but felt that it was worthy of its own thread, at least as a “poll” type thread.
So here we go. My own example is…my stepfather. Nice enough guy, but he’s also a Christian, and not (ahem) a very logical one. For instance, here’s his “proof” that evolution is wrong:
Him: Ever seen a monkey turn into a duck?
Me: Um…no.
Him: There you go. Evolution is false. [insert scene of stepdad folding his arms, with a “Slam-DUNK!” grin on his face.]
Me: [horrified stare, followed by me fleeing the room with great haste.]
Him: I thought so.
I mean…Christ!! How can you even respond to a comment like that?
So…what’s your own “ignorance not worth fighting” incident?
Happened to me tonight actually. Chatting to one of the sheilas at work during our smoko break, she proceeded to tell me that a ‘sure-fire’ way of making positive changes in your life was to write the change you wanted on a piece of paper, wrap it around an apple, scatter rose-petals around it, and wish real hard.
“I’m SERIOUS kambuckta”, she said.
“Yeah, I know you are sunshine, and that is the REAL worry ya know”, was my retort.
Some people are just dumber than dogshit. No point fighting it.
A relative once told me that black people are told by their leaders to have as many children as possible in order to out-populate whites in the United States. Her evidence for this was that many black women have multiple children, sometimes from different fathers.
*Attn: All African-Americans
From: Black Person Central Command
We have made some progress in our plan to take over the country, but we must redouble our efforts if we really want to screw whitey over. Men, you’re not having enough unprotected sex with fertile women. Women, if each of you could have just one baby a year, we could be an electoral majority by the year 2017. Then we can enforce mandatory dreadlocks and change the national anthem to a Jay-Z song. Perhaps Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem).*
I think religion in general, whether organized or not, qualifies. If it makes people happy to think that there is a Giant Whatsit controlling the universe and that the secret to happiness to is to do whatever the Giant Whatsit says, who am I to deny them their happiness?
As long as they don’t try to inflict their beliefs on me, that is.
Sadly I run into these people too often. Its like they’re almost completely devoid of logic in their thinking. Stuff that makes sense to us just…I dunno, passes them by? For that group it doesn’t matter how much sense you make using logic. The only thing they are interested in is emotional responses.
Conspiracty theorists in general, not just the “9/11 was the result of space aliens” types. It’s most infuiating when they try to pass off their “knowledge” as fact, and you can’t even get them to admit that there is little to no solid evidence to support their claims. For a small group of them, I think it’s all about emotion, like Bongmaster stated. As for the others I’ve encountered, I think they really believed everything they were talking about.
Ignorance can be rampant on the net and in life. I don’t think there’s a specific type of ignorance that isn’t worth fighting; but there are specific types of people who aren’t worth the time it would take to enlighten. I’m sure everyone knows the type: A bucket head who seems to want to listen, exchange thoughts (ie, argue), but doesn’t. You can tell they don’t when they bring up a point that was refuted earlier.
Example:
Person 1:Evolution is false because spontaneous generation was disproven.
Person 2: Well, that’s actually Abiogenesis and doesn’t effect the validity of evolution at all. In addition, spontaneous generation involves fully formed complex creatures spontaneously appearing.
A little while later, perhaps after lunch or what not.
Person 1: I still don’t get why you believe in the evolutionary fairytale; I mean, it breaks the first law of thermodynamics.
Actually, ignorance bitch-slapped me from my front stoop just a few weeks ago.
Middle age fellow & his wife knocked on my door. She shoved a flyer into my hand and he started an off-the-cuff spiel offering to do my lawn care for me. He wrapped up said spiel stating with no small amount of pride that, “I don’t hire no blacks and I don’t hire no Mexicans.”
Honestly, friends, I was so surprised by this naked display of bigotry, I had no comeback. See, despite that we now live in the fairly rural (our neighborhood is situated between two tobacco fields) part of the county, it has been well over a decade since I encountered outspoken bigotry. As such, my reaction time was VERY slow. I wound up just mumbling a dumbfounded thanks and shutting the door.
Of course, afterward I started thinking of all the things I SHOULD have done, like referring him to my next-door neighbors, a very nice African-American family. But in the end, the only fighting I could muster was to throw his flyer in the trash.
sigh First decent opportunity in years to put ignorance in its place and I blinked.
Then again, godzillatemple’s post displays a different kind of ignorance, but I’m really too busy to correct it, and besides there’s other Dopers here far better qualified to try to explain yellow to a blind man…
It’s more than that…they’re not used to concept of changing their notions through debate, so they just roll their eyes and turn off their brain when you start to argue them and pointing out the little inconsistencies. A lot of these people seem to come from a culture where questioning and reason is a foreign concept, let alone, god forbid, self-examination of beliefs…
while perusing the internet today (i don’t have a job right now, and have waaaay too much time on my hands) i discovered a web page by a young man who thinks that the only way to avoid going to hell is to read the King James version of the Bible and accepting it - also, you have to be a member of the Duck River Valley Baptist Church (obviously, the only true beleivers of God) - hence, by his logic, everybody went to hell before the King James Bible was written/translated…
here’s a link…
Well, let’s see. There’s my rabidly atheist cow-orker who unquestioningly believes any and all anti-Christian statement she can find, even when faced with evidence to the contrary (yes, she even repeats the “millions killed in the ‘Burning Times’ by the Inquisition” nonsense, even after being shown that the Inquisition did not even recognize the existence of “witchcraft” as such). Then there’s my rabidly fundamentalist cow-orker who considers “Rational Design” to be to much of a crompromise with evolutionists. They’re lots of fun in a room together.
I know two guys (old friends from childhood who were sane back then) who answer every challange to thier assinine beliefs with “because it says so in the bible!”
Thats about as far as the disscussion goes for me. They invariably want to keep going, which lead to me dropping my pants and mooning them!
Come to think of it, thats a pretty good answer, too!
I scream, you scream, we all denounce Jesus for ICE CREAM!
I think it’s important to point out that nonsense posted in a public forum should always be confronted. Even if you know that you’ll never change the thinking of the poster, there may be many impressionable lurkers who will buy into unquestioned bullsh*t.