# 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:** 2
**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, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/21 "2013-05-18T16:42:45Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Unless folks really couldn’t fight 9/11 or Moon-landing nuts. Which you should really be informed enough to fight. That brand of ignorance tends to fight back. I recently tried, and failed, to fight one’s ignorance of remote controlled airliners. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2013, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/22 "2013-05-18T16:52:50Z")
As Ron White said, “You can’t fix stupid.” ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2013, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/23 "2013-05-18T17:00:38Z")
Among the very, very many wrongheaded things my former boss believed, was ‘drinking water causes sweating’. I needed the job, so I didn’t bother trying to correct him. There was also his apparent belief that Ontario Power Generation gets tax money, and thus their at the time too-high rates justified his not paying taxes. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2013, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/24 "2013-05-18T18:28:00Z")
My buddy who is a carpenter claims he invented an alternator for an electric engine that once started will keep the car going forever. He can’t figure out why something so simple hasn’t allready been thought of. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2013, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/25 "2013-05-18T18:34:47Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > 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. She, actually. ---
**Author:** ![Docta\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@Docta\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Docta_G)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2013, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/26 "2013-05-18T18:41:30Z")
Ignorance defeated. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2013, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/27 "2013-05-18T18:49:00Z")
> [@picunurse](#): > > As Ron White said, “You can’t fix stupid.” Amen to this! I was cubicle neighbors with a flake who was saying something about activated charcoal removing toxins from tooth enamel. :rolleyes: The scariest part - she had managed to reproduce, and she intended to do it again. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2013, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/28 "2013-05-18T18:50:00Z")
[Here you go.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=691289) ---
**Author:** ![Archaic\_Entity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/41988e/32.png) [@Archaic\_Entity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archaic_Entity)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2013, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/29 "2013-05-18T20:30:40Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > [Here you go.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=691289) Haha. When I saw that thread I just kept right on going. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2013, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/30 "2013-05-18T21:07:01Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > 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. The OP was about randomly overhearing strangers claim there’s no such thing as bedbugs as they rode by. I find it highly unlikely that she doesn’t know that bedbugs exist, nor that it’s her own lack of knowledge that stopped her from chasing down the kids and correcting them. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2013, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/31 "2013-05-19T05:04:41Z")
I had a co-worker who thought there was no such word as “cannot” and I couldn’t think of a polite way to convince her otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2013, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/32 "2013-05-19T06:19:12Z")
I met a rabid Reagan supporter in the 1980s who insisted the amendment preventing the president from running for a third term was the result of those “bastard Democrats.” I knew it had been a Republican effort in response to FDR’s four election wins but could not recall any details, and thus _I_ was the stupid one for believing what he clearly considered to be tripe. And this was pre-Internet, so I couldn’t just go look it up. I since found out _the_ person largely responsible for pushing it through was President Taft’s son, Robert Taft of Ohio, the preeminent Republican conservative of his day. But I never saw the guy again, although I could have, as his wife’s path and mine crossed quite often. (She was not nearly as crazy as her husband was and indeed just seemed to “go along” with her husband’s rantings.) I’m not sure I would have bothered to engage him, on anything, if I had met him again. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2013, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/33 "2013-05-19T06:41:07Z")
Actually this may be a common problem. The average person does not study up refuting young earther/9-11 truther/moon-landing hoax talking points while dedicated ideologues will often memorize the entire corpus of the vast literature available. So how’s a rational person supposed to counter it when he know its to be false but cannot offer any decent talking points beyond appeals to authority and popularity and some relatively simple arguments that said ideologue will always have a counterargument prepared against? ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2013, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/34 "2013-05-19T06:55:57Z")
We’ve got these radio DJs here in Dallas that have a segment called: “Did You Know?” . I don’t know what website they are getting their information from, but man, it’s embarrassingly wrong a lot of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2013, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/35 "2013-05-19T07:29:48Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > Actually this may be a common problem. The average person does not study up refuting young earther/9-11 truther/moon-landing hoax talking points while dedicated ideologues will often memorize the entire corpus of the vast literature available. So how’s a rational person supposed to counter it when he know its to be false but cannot offer any decent talking points beyond appeals to authority and popularity and some relatively simple arguments that said ideologue will always have a counterargument prepared against? This. It’s usually the stupidest things that are the hardest to fight, because I generally do not waste my time learning to counter ridiculous arguments. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2013, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/36 "2013-05-19T19:28:47Z")
> [@picunurse](#): > > As Ron White said, “You can’t fix stupid.” But you can take them down with an electric cattle prod. _I WISH!_ Here in Bug Tussle, the local Tea Farty is harassing Muslims who are building a mosque. They have used every crummy stunt they can to legally block this, plus arson. They described a kiddies wading pool as “an aquatic terrorist training facility”, apparently confusing Mecca with Atlantis. :rolleyes::smack: And I can’t talk anybody down from the edge of the cliff.☹ ---
**Author:** ![Stauderhorse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Stauderhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stauderhorse)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2013, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/37 "2013-05-19T19:46:00Z")
My mom went to Australia a little over twenty years ago, and some random guy told her they had found a cure for HIV there, but the medical industry was keeping it under wraps. She stood by this belief despite all evidence to the contrary, because she heard it from some guy once. :rolleyes: Never mind that a cure could make the industry billions of dollars. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2013, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/38 "2013-05-19T22:42:48Z")
This [anti-vax](https://www.facebook.com/#!/VACCeptableInjuries?fref=ts.) moron. Also I was at a work conference a few years ago during the anniversary of 9/11. I was in NYC at the time. I was talking about the situation with a friend. Another co-worker kept interrupting us to explain how it was an inside job. I only escaped him by running with her into the ladies room. ---
**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 20, 2013, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/39 "2013-05-20T13:23:04Z")
I am absolutely amazed that there are still people who believe OJ was framed. Yeah, right. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618/40 "2013-05-20T14:02:55Z")
I had a co-worker once who would simply not believe that an owl was a bird. Dictionaries and encyclopedias had no effect whatsoever. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ignorance-you-couldnt-fight/658618.md?page=3)