# Stop feeling superior for being ignorant **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 31, 2010, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-feeling-superior-for-being-ignorant/548732 "2010-07-31T22:07:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-feeling-superior-for-being-ignorant/548732/21 "2010-08-01T03:24:19Z")
> [@Sodalite](#): > > We live in such a media saturated society that it’s nearly impossible to get through a week without knowing what’s going on, be it celebrity trivia or major world events. Certainly it is. Look at all the people who are unaware of current events. Major stuff, like 9/11 or the winner of the Presidential election, sure, but how many people know that war is about to break out between a major oil-exporting country and a major cocaine-exporting country? Major celebrity trivia, sure, even I know that DeGeneres is leaving American Idol, but I’d never heard of Jersey Shore. (Now, of course, I know that it is a TV show.) People focus on different things, have different interests, and different priorities on how they choose to process the data smog. I agree that it is unnecessary to be contemptuous or dismissive of another persons interests. After all, if you’re at a loss for _something_ to talk about, you can still talk about the weather. ---
**Author:** ![Chicagojeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b19c9b/32.png) [@Chicagojeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicagojeff)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-feeling-superior-for-being-ignorant/548732/22 "2010-08-01T03:31:56Z")
Life without snookie or jwow? I call bull!!! That’s two Jersey shore cast members for you blue bloods. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-feeling-superior-for-being-ignorant/548732/23 "2010-08-01T03:38:12Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#): > > I’m pretty sure I’m not the individual the OP is referring to You’re not. I hadn’t even read the thread where you posted that. (Not that I’m saying I’m better than the people who did read it.) ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-feeling-superior-for-being-ignorant/548732/24 "2010-08-01T03:50:10Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I hadn’t even read the thread where you posted that. (Not that I’m saying I’m better than the people who did read it.) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-feeling-superior-for-being-ignorant/548732/25 "2010-08-01T05:50:39Z")
> [@Sodalite](#): > > I work in a flower shop. Every Valentine’s we get dozens of panicked guys coming in at the last minute telling us how they “had no idea” it was Valentine’s Day. Really? So you haven’t noticed all the pink and red heart decorations and giant heart shaped boxes of candy that have HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY written all over them? The piles of heart bearing stuffed animals at every store and gas station you walked into since the day after Christmas? The people on the corners selling expensive baskets of cheap-ass crap and wilted flowers in heart covered paper (that’s a pit thread for another time)? The TV, radio, and internet ads? None of it? Well then, you sir, must have your head shoved pretty far up your ass most of the time. I don’t think it’s so much where one forgets about the existence of Valentine’s Day. Instead, it’s holiday creep. With the promotion of and lead-up to a holiday getting longer and longer, I think we’re just surprised to know that a holiday may be tomorrow, rather than a couple of weeks from now. I think we also forget that Valentine’s Day is a fixed day (February 14), rather than a floating holiday (e.g. third Monday of the month, fourth Thursday of the month), as so many are now. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-feeling-superior-for-being-ignorant/548732/26 "2010-08-01T07:30:33Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Oh, it gets even better: “I don’t own a TV.” I don’t own a TV. I watch my soaps on the interwebs. ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-feeling-superior-for-being-ignorant/548732/27 "2010-08-01T07:54:25Z")
TV, schmeevee. I only watch highbrow documentaries on teh intrawebs, and even then, only when they’ve been recommended by Dylan Avery, and other notable intellects. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-feeling-superior-for-being-ignorant/548732/28 "2010-08-01T08:06:13Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > I don’t own a TV. The new snobbery: “I don’t own a flat screen HDTV. My old CRT is just fine. High definition doesn’t make the shows any better.” I think these are the children of parents who never got AM-_FM_ radios for their cars. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-feeling-superior-for-being-ignorant/548732/29 "2010-08-01T08:11:58Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I won’t link to the other thread and point fingers at the individual because it’s a common fault. Some popular culture figures were being mentioned and he posted what was essentially “I’ve never heard of this person. I had to look up who it was. Why are you bothering to talk about this?” I think you’ve been whooshed. As far as I can recall (;)), the poster in question was posting in a topic called “Arguments you’re sick of on the SDMB” (or something like that). His post was in reference to that. The fact that everyone always seems to talk and argue about and over this particular political figure. I got the feeling that that was one “argument” that, in his opinion, he was sick of. Furthermore, he ended it with a joke. Seemed he was trying to appear to mistake Glenn Beck for John Glenn. I’m pretty sure the poster in question knows the difference and was just trying for some lame laughs. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-feeling-superior-for-being-ignorant/548732/30 "2010-08-01T08:13:58Z")
There’s someplace named ‘Jersey’ with a ‘shore’? How nice! ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-feeling-superior-for-being-ignorant/548732/31 "2010-08-01T08:34:27Z")
Ah, to hell with it. I assume Little Nemo was talking about [this post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=12737719&postcount=48) by yours truly. I’m sorry that it seemed to give off a sense of superiority (well, to you, at least–but maybe to others as well). That was not my intent. I do know who Glenn Beck is, actually, I was just trying to make a contribution to what was (as I saw it, ironically) going on in the topic right then. Seems the OP of that topic wanted SDMB arguments people are sick of and what does the topic of conversation dominantly become? Why, another argument about Glenn Beck. So it sort of moved from “Give me issues on here you’re sick of seeing” to all about one of the actual issues someone is sick of seeing. So I was trying to subtly, sarcastically point out that fact. I guess it backfired and I came across sounding smug instead. I’m sorry if it pissed anyone off. And as I said above, the PS was actually my attempt at a joke. Guess I fail at being funny too. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-feeling-superior-for-being-ignorant/548732/32 "2010-08-01T08:57:54Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > The new snobbery: “I don’t own a flat screen HDTV. My old CRT is just fine. […]” … Goddammit, I’m not a snob, I’m just poor ! ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-feeling-superior-for-being-ignorant/548732/33 "2010-08-01T09:04:12Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > > [@Kobal2](#): > > > > I don’t own a TV. > > The new snobbery: “I don’t own a flat screen HDTV. My old CRT is just fine. High definition doesn’t make the shows any better.” … I prefer to use my surplus money to feed starving 3rd world children and to support shelters for abandoned kittens and puppies. Oh yes, and to save the whales. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-feeling-superior-for-being-ignorant/548732/34 "2010-08-01T09:38:35Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > > [@elmwood](#): > > > > The new snobbery: “I don’t own a flat screen HDTV. My old CRT is just fine. […]” > > … Goddammit, I’m not a snob, I’m just poor ! Me too. But I do like smaller TVs better. The bigger ones give me motion sickness. And don’t look as good up close. I’ve yet to see a CRT TV that looked pixelated, even from an inch away. I don’t know what it is. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-feeling-superior-for-being-ignorant/548732/35 "2010-08-01T15:41:01Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I won’t link to the other thread and point fingers at the individual because it’s a common fault. Some popular culture figures were being mentioned and he posted what was essentially “I’ve never heard of this person. I had to look up who it was. Why are you bothering to talk about this?” > > The implication was that he felt superior to us because he wasn’t wasting his brain on trivia like we were. He appeared to think that not knowing what we were talking about indicated he was smarter than us. > > And I think that’s complete bullshit. While I do indeed agree with your point, I think this sort of attitude may be a backlash or counterattack against the also-annoying attitude that puts people down as uncool, square, or elitist for **not** being up to date on pop culture. If you’re frequently exposed (not necessarily here) to "All the **cool** kids are watching/reading/listening to/paying attention to [latest “in” person, place, or thing with a popular or cult following], I can see why you might get defensive and try to portray it as a virtue rather than a defect in yourself. > [@](#): > > There’s no reason to be proud of any kind of ignorance. [QUOTE=John Watson, M.D.] [Sherlock Holmes’s] ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know next to nothing. Upon my quoting Thomas Carlyle, he inquired in the naivest way who he might be and what he had done. My surprise reached a climax, however, when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composition of the Solar System. That any civilized human being in this nineteenth century should not be aware that the earth travelled round the sun appeared to me to be such an extraordinary fact that I could hardly realize it. ``` "You appear to be astonished," he said, smiling at my expression of surprise. "Now that I do know it I shall do my best to forget it." "To forget it!" "You see," he explained, I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones." "But the Solar System!" I protested. "What the deuce is it to me?" he interrupted impatiently: "you say that we go round the sun. If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work." ``` [/QUOTE] (Although I suspect Holmes may well have been yanking Watson’s chain a bit.) ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-feeling-superior-for-being-ignorant/548732/36 "2010-08-01T15:51:06Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > There’s someplace named ‘Jersey’ with a ‘shore’? How nice! No, Jersey Shore is Howard Shore’s cousin. I heard an opera of his Paris. I believe he also works for Hollywood. ---
**Author:** ![multimediac17](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/839c29/32.png) [@multimediac17](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/multimediac17)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-feeling-superior-for-being-ignorant/548732/37 "2010-08-01T15:51:50Z")
I cannot tell you how much I hate this. I love the SDMB (don’t we all) but my biggest pet peeve (in Cafe Society, anyway) is people acting superior because they don’t know who someone is, or because they don’t watch/read/listen to something considered “lowbrow”. UGH. It’s just such wanky behaviour. Nobody gives a shit if you haven’t heard of someone - that doesn’t make you superior, it makes you ignorant, and gloating about being ignorant makes you a twat. It’s even worse when people do it in threads about celebrities who have just died. No I will not lighten up, and don’t call me Francis. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-feeling-superior-for-being-ignorant/548732/38 "2010-08-01T16:15:35Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > > [@Kobal2](#): > > > > I don’t own a TV. > > The new snobbery: “I don’t own a flat screen HDTV. My old CRT is just fine. High definition doesn’t make the shows any better.” I think these are the children of parents who never got AM-_FM_ radios for their cars. Heh. That’s my dad. My first car, a 1985 hand-me-down Chevy Chevette was AM only. My dad’s replacement car only had FM because at that point (c. 1991), there was no longer an AM-only option. And I don’t think I’ve ever purchased a TV in my life–but there has always been one where I was living. And, yes, it’s even a flatscreen. ---
**Author:** ![bucketybuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@bucketybuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bucketybuck)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-feeling-superior-for-being-ignorant/548732/39 "2010-08-01T16:21:44Z")
You all miss the point. People can feel smug all day about not knowing celebrity figures, I couldnt care less what they do or do not know. But just how empty does your life have to be when you can waste time informing strangers on the internet that you don’t know what they are talking about? Take the threads started about any young hollywood starlet. Some mung-bean will take the time to post “I have never even heard of her”. Basically the conversation equivalent of, “I don’t know who you mean, and so have nothing to contribute to this thread. Just thought I’d tell you that.” Why? Why say it? Are you such a lonely nerd that you need to type something, anything, just to let somebody know you still exist? Imagine trying that at a party. “Hi bitches, I coudnt help overhear you talking about 1920’s era death metal!” “Yeah, so?” “Well I dont know anything about 1920’s era death metal, I dont listen to music!” “So? Fuck off, we are talking about death metal you twat.” ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-feeling-superior-for-being-ignorant/548732/40 "2010-08-01T16:38:03Z")
> [@Sodalite](#): > > Exactly this. Anyone who says they’ve never even heard of whatever current pop culture fad is going around has nothing to be proud of. That just means they pay no attention to their surroundings. No, I don’t pay attention to _your_ surroundings. I don’t make a habit of bragging about being unfamiliar with things, but the other day I had to look up who Snooki is (“Oh, she’s on that Jersey Shore show that everyone’s making fun of.”). I truly wasn’t familiar with the name; probably because anything at all related to MTV gets mentally filed away in a big folder labeled _Things I Don’t Give a Shit About_. I’m not an anti-TV snob. I watch more than my share of sitcoms and lowbrow fare. It’s just that there is a separate circuit of reality and celebrity gossip shows that don’t link up at all with what I watch. I would have to go out of my way to keep tabs on that circuit, and I’d wager that more people than you think are in the same situation. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-feeling-superior-for-being-ignorant/548732.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-feeling-superior-for-being-ignorant/548732.md?page=3)