Do people pretend not to know who people are in order to seem intelligent?

You're saying you think KK is the most intelligent business woman to ever have existed?

And you're judging other people?

Which means you're agreeing that KK only managed it because of having made her name by being someone dodgy's step daughter and leaking a sex tape then marrying a well known crazy person?

Or you think that KK is the most intelligent business woman ever to have lived.

Because that's the only reason you think she could do it but you doubt someone you know literally nothing about on the internet could.

What makes you doubt it? You don't know who I am or anything about me. Because I don't sell every aspect of my life to the tabloids.

So you were being rude, because you have no idea of my capabilities but you've just told me I'm less likely to succeed than Kim Kardashian even if I did exactly the same as her.

Maybe I would if I was willing to sell my entire life?

Which is only selling because of her name, which she made by being the step daughter of someone and having a sex tape then marrying and divorcing a crazy person.

Unless you think she'd have made it as a designer without all of that?

I genuinely have no clue who most famous people are. It just isn’t on my radar. Not sure that makes me seem intelligent! It’s not that I think I’m above it, I just seem to filter out the irrelevant information. I have heard the name Kim Kardashian. I don’t know whether she is an actor, singer etc or what she appears in. I wouldn’t recognise her.

Exactly.

But when I do hear of these people and ask about them, hoping to find the reason for their high profile, I'm always left baffled. They are truly famous for being famous, and shameless self-promoters.

My feeling: yes, but what have they done? Oh - got some implants. OK.

There's also the issues that with extreme contouring, face lifts, cheek implants, lip fillers, hair extensions, nose jobs, turkey teeth and now mounjaro it's easy for slebs to radically alter their appearance QUICKLY.

So you've not seen Katie Price's face in 18 months or whatever because you don't watch much telly, read tabloids or your Facebook algorithms mean you don't cross her path online, and then suddenly you see a pic and don't recognise who it is. People change drastically these days, it's easily done.

I've certainly done it in the past where I've not recognised Lady Gaga etc. It doesn't mean I don't know who she is. I've seen her in concert, followed her career online, but I didn't recognise her in a photo recently. I would have said to anyone with me "Who's that?". It doesn't mean I'm being pious or wanting to give the impression such is beneath me.

Well, as I have mentioned I can guarantee that my parents will have never heard of them. And they do of course live in the world - it's just a very different world to the one you imagine everyone lives in. They are wealthy, live rurally, do not use the internet, take no interest in popular culture, and their lives revolve around classical music, gardening, and reading. Shopping is delivered or done in the very genteel nearby market town. Holidays are in rural France. And that's all fine.

What is interesting is the belief that such people simply cannot exist.

I mean, in my case I can answer all these: there are no billboards where I live, our buses don't carry advertising, our bus stops are just wooden shelters or a pole, I don't watch TV with adverts, and I don't take note of the front cover of magazines as I don't buy them, other than Private Eye, which comes via the post.

I have heard of both Kim Kardashian and Katie Price, but have little interest in their vapid lives. I might just about be able to identify them in a line-up of blow-up "gentlemen's relaxation" dolls.

@Matronic6 there’s probably a performative element but then all of social media is performative and riddled with showing off, virtue signalling, humble bragging, moral grandstanding, piling on and other unhealthy behaviours. Why single out “who?”
It’s fairly harmless

By just living in the world.

Interesting that not one person on this thread has said they have genuinely never heard of her…

@Needmorelego good points
and yes there probably is an element of intellectual snobbery but I must admit the two times I’ve replied “who”
the message was irrelevant to the group it was being posted in and delivered with the sort of breathless urgency and outrage that should be reserved for events such as Japan invading Pearl Harbor

@SunConure but people whose ONLY interest is celebrity gossip/fashion is probably actually a small amount of people.
A person can be interested in celebs and (for example) politics or law at the same time.
I mean Elle Woods solved the case thanks to her knowledge of designer shoes and rules about hair perm maintenance 😁
(if you don't know who that is then the correct response is "who is Elle Woods?" not a snippy "who" 😂😂😂)

@Needmorelego im an educator by profession I guess my vocation is to do with trying to raise standards of critical thought. It’s not ONLY about different interests it’s about being empty headed and knowing nothing about the word except who wore what. How can people make sensible decisions regarding voting, jury service, when their main interest is celebrity gossip. Maybe my “who” might encourage someone to think? I doubt it though. Ha ha. But then, it’s up to me what I do

really and I don’t need to particularly have a reason.

No you can definitely tell.
Especially on sites like the Daily Mail online 😁
For example the thread here on Mumsnet about Vernon Kaye and Tess Daly I commented "I thought they split years ago" - which is a conversation comment.
But sometimes a thread like that will have comments of "who?".
That's what the OP means. If you don't know who they are why read the thread?
If you do read it you could think "nope... still don't know who these people are" but there's no need to add a comment of "who?".
A "who" on a thread like that is very much someone acting like they are sooooo clever and superior because they don't know who these people are.
It's being snobby.

But op was talking about comments on social media. It's quite impressive to be able to infer sarcasm from a brief social media comment

Or maybe they actually ARE just too high class and cultured ever to have come across KK?

Just a thought.

I wish pps would have the imagination to realise that not everyone shares the same interests or tastes, or lives the same life. Where would someone who mainly listens to Radio 3 and reads books ever hear of KK?