# Ignorance You Couldn't Fight **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 17, 2013, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618 "2013-05-17T19:29:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/1 "2013-05-17T19:29:20Z")
Have you ever overheard something that was factually incorrect, but didn’t/couldn’t give the correct information? This morning I was taking a walk around a lake when I heard one boy saying to another as they biked past me, “Did you know there’s no such thing as bedbugs?” ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/2 "2013-05-17T19:33:39Z")
Yesterday I was in a shop and a member of staff was selling some elderly and confused customers an HDMI cable, plus a 3.5mm jack to jack cable, saying “The HDMI cable only carries the picture, not the sound”. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/3 "2013-05-17T19:33:52Z")
A few months back I was having a friendly argument with a couple of friends about psychic powers. They were citing some TV show as proof that psychic powers exist. “Explain that!”, they said. I told them that I was not equipped to debunk some sensationalistic TV show that I’d never seen. To them that was a clear victory on their part. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/4 "2013-05-17T19:42:17Z")
Someone once told me that Andrew Lloyd Webber had nothing to do with writing the song “Memory” from CATS. Totally insisted they had read it somewhere, and were not prepared to argue the point. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/5 "2013-05-17T19:50:12Z")
Happens on this board every day. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/6 "2013-05-17T19:51:21Z")
I heard my stepson telling his dad that Phil Collins wrote “In the Air Tonight” after he witnessed someone letting a guy drown. There was no way I was fixing to insert myself into that conversation. ---
**Author:** ![apollonia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2bfe46/32.png) [@apollonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/apollonia)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/7 "2013-05-17T20:26:15Z")
In a tea shop the other day, the sales assistant handed little sample cups of brewed tea to a couple of customers, and the man turned to his wife and said “What is this? Are we supposed to drink it?” and when the salesgirl said “yes,” he said “well, I didn’t know, maybe it was potpourri or something.” ---
**Author:** ![Sahirrnee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sahirrnee/32/13937_2.png) [@Sahirrnee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sahirrnee)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/8 "2013-05-17T20:41:04Z")
I worked with a woman, to say she was strange would be an understatement, who swore she had to drink milk when she was pregnant so she would have enough milk to nurse her baby. She swore her doctor told her she had to drink milk to produce milk. Nothing we said could convince her otherwise because she was sure the milk she was drinking would turn into milk for the baby. She got very miffed when one of our co-workers said that if she really wanted to produce a lot of milk she should eat grass. The sad thing was, this woman had been a nurse. Maybe stupidity was why she wasn’t one anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/9 "2013-05-17T20:48:31Z")
> [@sahirrnee](#): > > Nothing we said could convince her otherwise because she was sure the milk she was drinking would turn into milk for the baby. > > She got very miffed when one of our co-workers said that if she really wanted to produce a lot of milk she should eat grass. Damn. Now I kinda want to go back in time, find her and suggest that she drink cream. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/10 "2013-05-17T21:03:22Z")
I overheard a customer and a pharmacy worker the other day discussing whether it was true that the owner of the company that makes Segways actually died from driving one off a cliff or not. They came to the conclusion that it wasn’t true- just an urban legend. I wanted to tell them it is actually true, but I didn’t want to look like I was eavesdropping. ---
**Author:** ![TheFaerie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c57346/32.png) [@TheFaerie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheFaerie)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/11 "2013-05-17T21:18:40Z")
I unfriended someone on FB because she posted about chem-trails. I didn’t know her well and decided right there and then I didn’t care to know her any better. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/12 "2013-05-17T21:20:54Z")
> [@TheFaerie](#): > > I unfriended someone on FB because she posted about chem-trails. I didn’t know her well and decided right there and then I didn’t care to know her any better. One of my friends is an anti-vaxer. She’s also against some other things that I’m for. I’m not going to argue with her. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/13 "2013-05-17T21:24:36Z")
> [@sahirrnee](#): > > Nothing we said could convince her otherwise because she was sure the milk she was drinking would turn into milk for the baby. Maybe she had one of those gastric by-pass operations. (Esophagus shunt direct to boobs.) So it was a simple case of CMICMO (Cow’s Milk In, Cow’s Milk Out). ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/14 "2013-05-17T21:28:20Z")
About a thousand times, from my mother-in-law, over the course of my 18 years (and counting) marriage. I have long since learned that it’s best for the sake of the whole family’s peace to just shut up and let her think what she thinks, no matter how factually wrong she might be. In the end, that will affect us more than (real example) her mistakenly thinking that an American citizen needs a passport to visit the U. S. Virgin Islands. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2013, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/15 "2013-05-18T15:14:10Z")
I think I mentioned this once, in another thread. I was standing in a supermarket line, and two women were behind me. One of them said to the other: “Isn’t it amazing that Jesus was born right on Christmas Day?” ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2013, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/16 "2013-05-18T15:22:28Z")
Someone I know on Facebook posted (as part of an ongoing conversation) that the price of food has gone up 100% per year for the past three years. I said she was wrong, and if it had I would have noticed. I didn’t figure it was worth any more effort than that. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2013, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/17 "2013-05-18T15:26:37Z")
Anti-GMO is the only quackery/nonsense I really feel uniformed enough to fight. If I’m reading the OP right, he is looking for ignorance we lacked the knowledge to fight, not ignorance that we cannot defeat, like conspiracy theories and anti-vaccinations stuff. Unless folks really couldn’t fight 9/11 or Moon-landing nuts. Which you should really be informed enough to fight. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2013, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/18 "2013-05-18T15:27:14Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > I think I mentioned this once, in another thread. > > I was standing in a supermarket line, and two women were behind me. One of them said to the other: “Isn’t it amazing that Jesus was born right on Christmas Day?” And if He sees his shadow on Easter Day, it’s another six weeks of spring. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2013, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/19 "2013-05-18T15:31:42Z")
any time anyone says something blatantly factually wrong, and then retreats with “but it’s just my opinion!” Andy Rooney may have been a crotchety old duffer, but when he said ”Not everyone has a right to his own opinion. If he doesn’t know the facts, his opinion doesn’t count," he was spot on. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2013, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/20 "2013-05-18T16:37:39Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Yesterday I was in a shop and a member of staff was selling some elderly and confused customers an HDMI cable, plus a 3.5mm jack to jack cable, saying “The HDMI cable only carries the picture, not the sound”. I’m guessing there’s a converter box somewhere that the member can’t figure out how set for sending audio through the HDMI. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618.md?page=2)