# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/101 "2007-11-01T15:41:05Z")
[QUOTE=norinew] FIL: When I was a boy, milk was a nickel a quart. Now it’s over $3.00 a gallon! [/QUOTE] My dad is the same when it comes to prices. “£3 for a pint of beer… when I was your age it cost 3 shillings!”. Yes dad, but how much did you earn back then? £1,000 a year? I don’t think he _really_ fails to understand the concept of inflation, though; he just likes having something to bitch about. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/102 "2007-11-01T15:42:03Z")
> [@](#): > > My FIL, a normally bright man, a retired electrical engineer, buys in far too much about all the crap going on about how drug companies have cures for stuff but won’t release them. > > And then there are the times he’s deliberately obtuse (or at least my hubby says he’s doing it deliberately). Like this conversation we had about milk prices not long ago: > FIL: When I was a boy, milk was a nickel a quart. Now it’s over $3.00 a gallon! > Me: Yeah, but how much money did your father earn when milk was a nickel a quart? Meaning, of course, it was 20C a gallon? > FIL: Twenty dollars a week. > Me: Okay, so he had to work approximately 20 minutes to buy a gallon of milk? > FIL: Something like that > Me: Okay, (hubby) has to work approximately 6 minutes to earn enough to buy a gallon of milk; so, essentially, it’s cheaper now, at least for us. > FIL: It was a nickel a quart! Now it’s more than $3.00 a gallon! That’s a big price jump! > Me: Okay, let’s stop talking about professional salaries and just talk about minimum wage. Someone making minimum wage can work about 20 minutes and make enough money to buy a gallon of milk. So at the very least, the relative cost has stayed the same. > FIL: No! It used to be a nickel a quart. . . > > ad infinitum. > > This is not a stupid man, but sometimes, oy. Read Twain’s **A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court** , in particular the chapter on “Political Economy”. Twain’s hero has the very same discission with someone in Arthurian England. Tain wrote the book in the 1880s, so ignorance of inflation (or bedazzlement by it) goes back well over a hundred years, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it existed in Arthur’s England, too. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/103 "2007-11-01T15:42:06Z")
[QUOTE=ivylass] My mother also tried to tell me that they shear sheep in the summer, so by the time winter comes, the sheep would be nice and warm with their wool. I told her, no, they shear sheep in the winter, because the wool is thicker. (I learned that from reading _The Thorn Birds_, so if that’s wrong, please tell me) Her jaw dropped as she realized the logic…sheep are nothing more than wool-producing machines. [/QUOTE] My grandfather raised sheep. He sheared them in the summer, so they’d be cooler in the heat. He didn’t shear them in the winter, because he didn’t want them to die from exposure in the winter. If you think sheep don’t have expressions: Check out the face of a freshly sheared ram in June. Your Mother was right on this one. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/104 "2007-11-01T15:51:21Z")
[QUOTE=olivesmarch4th] My former step-uncle, who took one look at the Sanskrit tattoo on my arm and referred to it as ‘‘Taliban bullshit.’’ When I explained to him that there is a tremendous difference between a middle-eastern terrorist faction and an ancient sacred Indian classical language, he said, ‘‘I don’t give it a shit. It’s not American, so it’s all the same to me.’’ [/QUOTE] This story made me flinch a little, though I’m not surprised. It always makes me wonder what Indian things I do or wear that are taken that way. ---
**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:** [November 1, 2007, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/105 "2007-11-01T15:55:32Z")
Conversation with co-worker: CW: Do you know who Marry Higgins Clark is? Me:The author? Yeah, she lives in New Jersey. CW:There’s an article here that she was screwed out of $27 million dollars. Me:Wow. CW: Can she really afford to lose that much money? Me: Well, she is very successful. CW: So, what type of books does she write? How could anyone not know what type of books Mary Higgins Clark writes? ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/106 "2007-11-01T15:57:00Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] How could anyone not know what type of books Mary Higgins Clark writes? [/QUOTE] Why would you? I’m not even sure why I happen to know (mystery, right?) as I never read mystery and really don’t like the genre. I read tons of other books, and I probably couldn’t name more than half a dozen mystery authors. ---
**Author:** ![Dante](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dante/32/9673_2.png) [@Dante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dante)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/107 "2007-11-01T15:57:46Z")
My FIL believes that there is a “real estate mafia”. What happens is the real estate agent brings all his “mafia” relatives over to make you think he’s working hard to sell your house. How this would benefit said agent is apparently not important. They’re stickin’ it to him! ---
**Author:** ![sandra\_nz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/108 "2007-11-01T15:58:30Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] Conversation with co-worker: CW: Do you know who Marry Higgins Clark is? Me:The author? Yeah, she lives in New Jersey. CW:There’s an article here that she was screwed out of $27 million dollars. Me:Wow. CW: Can she really afford to lose that much money? Me: Well, she is very successful. CW: So, what type of books does she write? How could anyone not know what type of books Mary Higgins Clark writes? [/QUOTE] I’ve never heard of her, let alone know anything about the types of books she rights. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/109 "2007-11-01T15:59:56Z")
[QUOTE=sandra\_nz] I’ve never heard of her, let alone know anything about the types of books she rights. ☹ [/QUOTE] Me neither, and I consider myself fairly well-read. ---
**Author:** ![burundi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@burundi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burundi)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/110 "2007-11-01T16:05:38Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by **Annie-XMas** > _How could anyone not know what type of books Mary Higgins Clark writes?_ I know that Clark is a fmous writer, but I’ve no idea what kind of books she writes. Romances? I do read a lot of mysteries, and I’ve never read anything by her. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/111 "2007-11-01T16:09:53Z")
[QUOTE=sandra\_nz] I’ve never heard of her, let alone know anything about the types of books she rights. ☹ [/QUOTE] I read a LOT. Never heard of her. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/112 "2007-11-01T16:14:14Z")
[QUOTE=Katriona] Just to bring it full circle back to The Thorn Birds, there’s a passage about how Meggie’s handwriting was never good because her teachers forced her to use her right hand when she showed lefty tendancies. I think I remember the quote going something along the lines of “left-handed children were thought to be children of the devil, especially if they were red-haired.” [/QUOTE] Yes, this was pre World War I, and the nuns tied her left arm to her side for six months. Plus, she got lice from her Italian friend (I don’t know what being Italian had anything to do with it, but she was, and that’s where she got the lice from) and she bit her nails. I think her first day of school was traumatic enough…it’s a wonder poor Meggie grew up loving books as much as she did. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/113 "2007-11-01T16:17:03Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] Conversation with co-worker: CW: Do you know who Marry Higgins Clark is? Me:The author? Yeah, she lives in New Jersey. CW:There’s an article here that she was screwed out of $27 million dollars. Me:Wow. CW: Can she really afford to lose that much money? Me: Well, she is very successful. CW: So, what type of books does she write? How could anyone not know what type of books Mary Higgins Clark writes? [/QUOTE] Um… _raises hand_ ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/114 "2007-11-01T16:30:52Z")
[QUOTE=Jeep’s Phoenix] Didn’t God drive Adam and Eve out of Eden in a Fury? [/QUOTE] Not only that, but (in the book of Acts) the disciples praise God with one Accord. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/115 "2007-11-01T16:31:24Z")
[QUOTE=Cat Fight] Do they [ever](http://christiandomesticdiscipline.com/originsotk.html). [/QUOTE] It’s hard sometimes to tell which sites are real and which ones are satire. I’m not sure what to make of that fact. ☹ ---
**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:** [November 1, 2007, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/116 "2007-11-01T16:38:38Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > Including you, apparently. Actually, no. I got up and let the _only person on duty_ in that half of the library know. > [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > And I’ve never gotten as far as the end of step 2 without some other library patrons joining in. Two or three people gathered around you, all saying “sshush” impress even the rudest person. Doesn’t work at my school. Most people would just roll their eyes at me if I started playing library nanny. Believe me, I’ve tried. > [@Colophon](#): > > But aren’t all Americans like that? Get off my board, you terrorist! 😉 As for you, **Malacandra** , **sandra\_nz** , etc. not knowing about Mary Higgins Clark, it’s probably just that her books aren’t popular outside of the US. They’re decent books if you’re into that kind of thing, but nothing very original. ---
**Author:** ![TheMerchandise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b487fb/32.png) [@TheMerchandise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheMerchandise)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/117 "2007-11-01T16:39:20Z")
I can reconcile the hijack with the original OP! I went for a regular eye exam about a year ago. As usual, the young eye assistant girl person (clearly, her official title) was doing the preliminary tests. I warned her that I was blind in my left eye before we started. She asked me to hold my hand up over my bad eye and read some letters off a chart. No problem. Then she asked me to hold my hand over my good eye. “I’m blind in that other eye. I won’t be able to read the chart.” “Oh, that’s okay. Do it anyway.” I complied and of course, couldn’t see a thing. Next was the depth perception test. She gave me some 3D glasses and asked me to look at a picture of several flies. “Which fly’s wing seems to lift off the page?” She asked. “None of them,” I said. “I don’t have binocular vision.” “What?” “I don’t have binocular vision.” “What does that mean?” “I’m blind in one eye. I don’t see in 3D.” “What?” This is a girl going to be an optomologist or optometrist one day. I’m speaking slowly at this point. “You cannot see in 3D if you do not have two working eyes. I can’t see what fly has his wing raised.” “Oh. Well look anyway. I need to write it down.” :smack: ---
**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:** [November 1, 2007, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/118 "2007-11-01T16:52:12Z")
There are people who don’t know that Mary Higgins Clark is the Queen of Suspense? My ignorance is fought. Color me embarassed and amazed! ---
**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:** [November 1, 2007, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/119 "2007-11-01T16:50:39Z")
[QUOTE=Swallowed My Cellphone] I read a LOT. Never heard of her. [/QUOTE] I’d never heard of her, either. I did look her up on Wikipedia, and she writes “suspense novels”. I’m not much interested in mystery novels set in modern times- I prefer historical mysteries. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644/120 "2007-11-01T16:54:11Z")
[QUOTE=fetus] As for you, **Malacandra** , **sandra\_nz** , etc. not knowing about Mary Higgins Clark, it’s probably just that her books aren’t popular outside of the US. They’re decent books if you’re into that kind of thing, but nothing very original. [/QUOTE] I’m American, and had no clue what kind of books she writes. That wouldn’t be an example of willful ignorance anyway. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stunning-examples-of-willful-ignorance/424644.md?page=7)