# Stunning examples of willful ignorance **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 30, 2007, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644 "2007-10-30T23:50:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2007, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/61 "2007-10-31T19:30:27Z")
[QUOTE=Zsofia] Close your eyes, don’t “think” about looking at anything, just spontaneously look in a natural way and put your triangle over what you see to start with. You don’t _always_ just normally, when looking at things, see two of them, right? [/QUOTE] I’m going to have to try this when I get home, as I look a little strange triangling things at work. But normally, I’m not really conscious of it, unless I think about it intentionally. (How’s that for circular logic?) If I want to frame a scene for an art project, I always close one eye, and do it pretty unconciously, because I know, probably through practice, that the double ghost thing happens. It occurs to me that I always keep my left eye open. That would probably be my dominant one. Or maybe it’s my right brain trying to find the artistic value. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2007, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/62 "2007-10-31T20:21:13Z")
[QUOTE=Anaamika] I remember the passage, vaguely. It’s been a long time since I read the Bible though. Wasn’t Lilith supposed to be descended from these people? [/quote] No, dear. Lilith, being Adam’s first wife, would have far predated them. She was cast out of the Garden pre-Fall (and obviously pre-Eve) for refusing to, ah, submit to Adam’s dominance sexually; apparently she preferred cowgirl style. > [@](#): > > Anyway, it was the first time I had ever heard someone who actually _believed_ that part of the Bible. Even Bible literalists pick and choose, I’ve found. Careful among whom you make that observation. Biblical literalists don’t like to admit that they pick and choose, and not a few get riled up. Mrs. Rhymer informs me that she once asked a Southern Baptist if he went a mile out of the city when he needed to crap, taking a shovel with him to bury the waste with, and nearly got slapped. (I think she stole this story from a Star Trek novel but I’m too wise to saw so in a large font.) > [@](#): > > Oh, and the other thing was, he believed they were still around and walking the Earth. Sure. That’s among the racist explanations for non-white populations. And nay, I am not jesting. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2007, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/63 "2007-10-31T20:31:52Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] Yes, that’s precisely what happens. That you have two eyes and DON’T have binocular vision astounds me. [/QUOTE] I have two working eyes, but they don’t work _together_ – I have amblyopia (one strongly dominant eye) due to strabismus (deviated eye) and anisometropia (eyes with strongly different prescriptions), which prevents my eyes from working in concert and giving me normal binocular vision. I’m able to judge depth by perception, focus, knowledge of where things are, parallax, and other such cues. However, it’s not good enough to enable me to catch a ball with any accuracy, and I don’t know whether it would be good enough for me to be able to drive a car. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2007, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/64 "2007-10-31T20:33:20Z")
Oh! My useless ex Éric is now convinced that the fact that products are marked kosher is some sort of tax on non-Jews. Don’t ask me how; he was pretty incoherent on the details. He’s always been pretty woo-woo, but he’s not usually outright offensive. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2007, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/65 "2007-10-31T20:34:03Z")
[QUOTE=Sarahfeena] I think that eye dominance is a matter of degree…your having good vision in both eyes probably accounts for the fact that you have good binocular vision, as well. [/QUOTE] Maybe I’m being a little pedantic here, but I’d like to point out that, while having two good eyeballs is a requiste for good depth perception, is not the mechanism for it. The brain is the organ that actually perceives the third dimension and any lack of ability in this perception may with the it (the brain) and not the eyes themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2007, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/66 "2007-10-31T20:36:36Z")
[QUOTE=UncleRojelio] Maybe I’m being a little pedantic here, but I’d like to point out that, while having two good eyeballs is a requiste for good depth perception, is not the mechanism for it. The brain is the organ that actually perceives the third dimension and any lack of ability in this perception may with the it (the brain) and not the eyes themselves. [/QUOTE] Oh, good point…that’s why I learned about all of this in my Perceptions class in college, which was actually a course about the brain and perceptions (it was a Psych class). I’m just saying that if your eyes don’t have the same focus, it screws up what the brain is trying to do. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2007, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/67 "2007-10-31T20:39:09Z")
[QUOTE=UncleRojelio] Maybe I’m being a little pedantic here, but I’d like to point out that, while having two good eyeballs is a requiste for good depth perception, is not the mechanism for it. The brain is the organ that actually perceives the third dimension and any lack of ability in this perception may with the it (the brain) and not the eyes themselves. [/QUOTE] :: putting on ski-mask and brandishing Glock as I join in the threadjack:: There was an interesting piece in the New Yorker a few fortnights ago on that subject, discussing ways persons who had lost the use of one eye, and thus their depth perception, could sometimes regain it. I’ll see if I can hunt it up. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2007, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/68 "2007-10-31T20:41:31Z")
[QUOTE=Sarahfeena] Oh, good point…that’s why I learned about all of this in my Perceptions class in college, which was actually a course about the brain and perceptions (it was a Psych class). I’m just saying that if your eyes don’t have the same focus, it screws up what the brain is trying to do. [/QUOTE] Yeah, and what fascinates me is the extent to which the brain can adjust for the differences between two eyes and still create a coherent picture, sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2007, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/69 "2007-10-31T20:43:48Z")
When it comes to eyes and 3D vision I am in a good position to talk. I have 20/200 in one eye and 20/20 in the other. I do not have 3D vision. I do not have problems (most of the time) with no depth of field as I have trained myself to estimate where objects are, and which object is closer from 50+ years of practice. When I was a child I could not catch a ball to save my soul, as I could not tell just where the damn thing was. By the time I got to my late 20s I had learned to estimate very quickly and can now catch a ball pretty well. I had an eye doctor that was trying to fit a hard contact to my bad eye. He managed to get my vision up to 20/70 with the contact. Then he put a secondary lens over the top of my eye (like what glasses would be) and all of a sudden I had 3D vision for the first time I could recall. The doctor went to take the lens back, and I took it from him so I could look around more. I recall looking down at the floor from the exam chair and thinking “Damn I’m up this high without a net?” :eek: 😃 Unfortunately while the lens improved my vision, I could not wear it for more than an hour at a time so I went back to a flat world. For those of you with 3D, you probably don’t see flat with one eye closed, as your brain remembers (at least for a period of time) the scene you were looking at. ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2007, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/70 "2007-10-31T20:55:48Z")
I feel bad about **Skald’s** thread being so hijacked, but I have a question about the depth perception thing, so I started a GQ [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=9131213#post9131213). ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Dave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/46a35a/32.png) [@Great\_Dave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Dave)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2007, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/71 "2007-10-31T20:57:04Z")
[QUOTE=D\_Odds] My aunt (by marriage - I have some stupid people in my family, but not quite this bad) believed that left-handed people where inherently evil and the devil’s wards. She was a school teacher. She was dumb as a brick in many other ways and also a tyrant, but she was older so she was always right. A school teacher… [/QUOTE] Well, the Latin for left is… _sinister_! ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2007, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/72 "2007-10-31T20:58:45Z")
[QUOTE=Skald the Rhymer] Mrs. Rhymer informs me that she once asked a Southern Baptist if he went a mile out of the city when he needed to crap, taking a shovel with him to bury the waste with, and nearly got slapped. (I think she stole this story from a Star Trek novel but I’m too wise to saw so in a large font.) [/QUOTE] It’s from _Spock’s World_ by Diane Duane. > [@ivylass](#): > > My grandmother (may she rot in hell forever) told me when I was a child that if you fell asleep with your arms over your head, you would die. > > I was terrifed, to the point at a sleepover I told my friend she needed to put her arms down by her side when we went to sleep or she would die. I guess it sounded scary enough that she believed me. I always sleep with one arm underneath my pillow (which I think counts as “over my head”). I have yet to die, but I have managed to sleep wrong on my shoulder a few times, and it hurt when I woke up. > [@Sarahfeena](#): > > That is interesting, because if I look at steps, especially if I’m going down, I almost invariably stumble. I wonder if that’s because of my bad binocular vision. I never noticed them looking “flat,” but I don’t have as severe a case as you do, since I have some vision in my “bad” eye, and my eyes are corrected with glasses (I have found that glasses don’t completely “fix” the binocular problem as they do with making things more focused.) I’ve had not-so-great binocular vision ever since I became quite nearsighted in one eye at age 12. Glasses don’t seem to entirely fix the problem for me, either. And I have trouble with looking at steps, especially when going down. I also have _lousy_ visual-spatial skills, which may have something to do with it. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2007, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/73 "2007-10-31T21:20:01Z")
[QUOTE=Cat Fight] I met a men involved in post-natal care who was sure a baby would instinctively grab a branch if dropped from a treetop. Now if someone would only let him test his theory… [/QUOTE] He may have been describing the [Moro reflex](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moro_reflex) (not very well): > [@](#): > > The Moro reflex, also known as the startle reflex, is one of the infantile reflexes. It may be observed in incomplete form in premature birth after the 28th week of gestation, and is usually present in complete form by week 34 (third trimester). It is normally present in all infants/newborns up to 4 or 5 months of age, and its absence indicates a profound disorder of the motor system … This reflex is a response to unexpected loud noise or when the infant feels like it is falling. It is believed to be the only unlearned fear in human newborns … The origin of this reflex can be found in that fact that primate infants of our cousins cling to their mother’s fur soon after birth, giving their mother the advantage of having her hands free to forage for food and such. If human babies are falling backward with their head their innate reflex will be to stretch out the arms to grab and cling to their mother. ---
**Author:** ![lobstermobster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobstermobster/32/10033_2.png) [@lobstermobster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobstermobster)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2007, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/74 "2007-10-31T21:47:22Z")
[QUOTE=Solfy] I have related here the story of my uncle’s wife who insisits that the pharmaceutical companies have a cure for cancer but won’t release it because, “they make too much money selling their other drugs and curing cancer would mean fewer profits from those other drugs.” No amount of reason would convince her that there is no cancer “maintenance” drug. No amount of reason would convince her that a company with a proven cure for cancer could name any price they wanted for the drug and people would flock to them regardless. The only solution I found was to tell her that I found her argument lacking in logic and then go off and find another glass of wine. There is no reasoning with some people. [/QUOTE] I’ve heard something similar to this except it’s Gillette and they are hoarding a non-toxic, hypo-allergenic product that will permenantly stop hair growth when applied and you’d never have to shave ever again. Those razor selling bastards. That may fall more under urban legends though. A friend’s roomate in college was one of the people that frantically collects the tabs off of aluminum cans for the cancer babies. There was even a straight dope column about it that I sent her the link to. She just simply did not respond to it. Continues to this day at parties to pick up people’s beer cans and takes the tabs. I’ve seen her stash she has thousands. She is saving up to send all at once. I am terrible about prodding her “how many of those tabs you got now? Where exactly are you going to send them when you’re ready? How many more are you going to collect until you send them off? Man those cancer babies sure are lucky!” ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2007, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/75 "2007-10-31T22:02:01Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > “BUT DO YOU PLAY BASIC GUITAR?!?” > > “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” > > “Huh. Then I guess you’re not very good.” Reminds me of a kid from Poland who went to my middle school. When he found out that I didn’t have a green card, he made fun of me relentlessly. “YOU’RE GONNA GET DEPORTED!” etc. He couldn’t grok the concept that people who were born in the US don’t need a green card. I just ignored him. (Well, except for the time me and a friend of mine gave him a royal beatdown, but that one was for spreading rumors about me. He learned not to fuck with me pretty quick. Oddly enough, that’s the only time in my life I’ve ever started a fight.) > [@tdn](#): > > Headdesk, headdesk, headdesk. Apply directly to the forehead! > [@Skald the Rhymer](#): > > :: putting on ski-mask and brandishing Glock as I join in the threadjack:: > > There was an interesting piece in the New Yorker a few fortnights ago on that subject, discussing ways persons who had lost the use of one eye, and thus their depth perception, could sometimes regain it. I’ll see if I can hunt it up. The picture of someone putting on a ski mask and brandishing a Glock specifically for the purpose of calmly discussing a recent piece in the New Yorker is a surreal vision that will surely stay with me for the rest of my life. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2007, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/76 "2007-10-31T23:03:58Z")
[QUOTE=Yllaria] . . . upside . . down . . by . . ? Did she give any reason for this conclusion? I don’t blame you if you didn’t want to ask. [/QUOTE] She figured it was the only explanation as to why she was so sore after the operation. [QUOTE=vetbridge] Wel, maybe she saw a cat/dog spay in progress. Many surgeons, myself included, will tilt the table (lowering the head) thus shifting abdominal contents forward. Many human surgeries have “unusual” positioning requirements as well. See: [lithotomy position](http://www.surgicaloncology.com/atf034a.gif) for a very mild example. [/QUOTE] She may have, but she specifically described that she must have been hung from the ceiling…no table of any kind involved. 😕 (I think a friend of hers was giving her these ideas; maybe it was a joke that got out of hand.) ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2007, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/77 "2007-10-31T23:10:12Z")
I would like to add that this lady believed just about anything you told her. She once found a bra belonging to her son’s girlfriend underneath the son’s bed. She questioned him about it, and he told her that the girlfriend had stopped by to change clothes before soccer practice. She believed it; as she told me, she knew the two didn’t “do anything” because she only found the girlfriend’s bra, not her underwear. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2007, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/78 "2007-10-31T23:28:41Z")
[QUOTE=Zsofia] Everybody has a dominant eye. Look at something a reasonable distance away. Just look at it normally. I’m looking at a lightbulb right now. Hold out your two hands so your thumbs and index fingers make a triangle around it. Close one eye and then another. The eye that sees the lightbulb framed in your triangle is your dominant eye - the other one won’t line up right. [/QUOTE] If I’m looking at something a reasonable distance away, I’m going to see two sets of hands, four thumbs, four index fingers, and four triangles. If I want to see the proper number of hands, I’m going to be looking between them at two lightbulbs. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2007, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/79 "2007-10-31T23:35:51Z")
[QUOTE=Sarahfeena] I feel bad about **Skald’s** thread being so hijacked, but I have a question about the depth perception thing, so I started a GQ [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=9131213#post9131213). [/QUOTE] Don’t worry about that. That sick bastard \*\*Fabulous Creature \*\* was one of the hijackers. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2007, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/80 "2007-10-31T23:37:41Z")
[QUOTE=Zsofia] Everybody has a dominant eye. [/QUOTE] I have two. One is dominant viewing up close, the other at a distance. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644.md?page=5)