Reply #37: I saw a live example of "preferred ignorance" [View All]

[Brewman_Jax]

Playing trivia a couple of weeks ago, one of the early questions (the game did not hinge on answering this correctly) was "What was the name of the Prime Minister of Congo assassinated in 1961?" The table next to us complained, "Why don't you ask an American question?" I almost said out loud, "Why? You guys probably can't answer that, either." If it wasn't in the sports page, I doubt that they'd know.

One of the guys I know who voted for Bush* because "he's a nice guy." I replied, "that's fine, we can go drink beer with GW*, but don't you want someone who's smart to be President?" To that, he said, "yeah, I know that Gore is much smarter than Bush*, but Bush* is cooler."

I had to come up with a term for it,"preferred ignorance." Willful ignorance, though accurate, implies working to stay that way. I've seen too many lazy people to see that being/staying ignorant actually takes no work at all. Blame it on work, family, economy, etc., but it says simply, "I'm ignorant, and I don't care."

As for the dittoheads, that's "willful ignorance," 'cause they actually work at it.