Do other people ever astonish you with their lack of general knowledge?

[Ohnotanothernamechange]

Just recently I've spoken to a few people who expressed amazement when they disocovered that Chernobyl is a real place. I know that we all have gaps in our knowledge but how the hell you can not know about the Chernobyl disaster? It's a bit like the simpleton on a twitter some years ago who was amazed to discover that the Titanic was a real ship and not figment of James Cameron's imagination....

I remember one time a work colleague was going to Rome and when I told them I'd been they asked me if there was lots of stuff to see and do there. I was like well of course, it's Rome. And they asked me what they were. I then had to list the coliseum, the Trevi Fountain, The Spanish Steps, The Vatican, the countless Roman Ruins etc not to mention the countless designer shops and fabulous restaurants. They genuinely had no idea what was in Rome. I was gobsmacked. This was someone I'd assumed was pretty intelligent as well.

I can't work out if I just know too much, or these people are just really ignorant?

As a PP said, some people choose ignorance and wear it like a badge of honour. I blame stuff like TOWIE, Love Island etc for some of this as so many of the protagonists appear to enjoy being seen as 'ditzy' (or 'thick' as I prefer to call them). One of my friends is superlatively ignorant on current/world affairs, and exists entirely in her own narrow frame of reference. However, she's also got more general common sense that many people I've met and makes pinpoint accurate appraisals of situations that have nothing to do with being able to name anyone in the current government cabinet or work out WTF Donald Trump's on about in his mad tweets.

I've recently left a role in a secondary school, and was disheartened by so many of the girls there who have zero interest in anything but marrying a premiership footballer or working in a beauty salon - which, I'm perfectly aware - says more about me than them. It's just that the few girls I met who were interested in science, history, maths or sport (beyond marrying a premiership footballer, I mean) were the exception as opposed to the rule. The woeful standard of literacy will definitely play a part in the life choices open to so many of these young women - repeatedly hearing many of them express how much they 'hate' reading was depressing, despite my best efforts as school librarian to encourage this aspect of their learning.

I honestly believe many people are also tired of the status quo when it comes to 'them' and 'us' of the established order, and so seek to simply be happy and comfortable in their own little bubble - and, in many ways, that's no bad thing. Personally, the more I discover and the more curious I become about things happening in politics, education, healthcare and the environment, the more bloody depressed I get.... so perhaps it's no wonder that so many people choose to disengage?

General knowledge is very context dependent though. If I moved to India I would have a woeful grasp of the geography and history most people there would take for granted.

I know Elizabeth I comes before Victoria but I wouldn't have a clue if you gave me the Spanish Royal Family to put in order. Or Swedish or Dutch. I'd only do slightly better with Russian Tsars.

And sometimes we can reveal our own ignorance when we berate people for not knowing things. I was constantly told off through my childhood for not knowing things about World War II (I was born over 30 years after it ended....) But I was well into my teens before I learnt anything about say the bombing of German cities or the siege of Leningrad (20 thousand dead on a single night in Hamburg 42,000 overall, other similar tragedies. Russia's 27+ million war dead).

We've had several genocides since ww2, (and ongoing ones to this day, dafur, rohinga) as well as terrible concentration camps still being run, North Korea being one.
For a lot of stuff mentioned in this thread, it's neither here nor there if you know it or care about it.
But for things like the holocaust it's incredibly important, as these mistakes are still on going, we're (the world) are turning a blind eye to a lot or in some cases being involved negatively (Frances role in Rwandan genocide), by learning about, understanding, kids going to the old concentration camps, it's educating a new generation to be like stop with this shit and as others have said see the warning signs, why we need to act on them, not to spread hatred as this is where it ends up.

I agree, Tabitha005.

But worse than the secondary-school pupils are the university students who know nothing. I know one young person who has just finished an English degree and had never heard of Samuel Pepys!! I mean that might be ok in the general population, but how can someone who has supposedly studied English Literature managed to dodge even a reference to him? And when I asked if she had read Cranford, she said, "No, I think I've heard of him, but haven't read anything by him."

Oh God, yes, travellers are another group that it's apparently ok to be a twat about. Even my lefty wokest friends seem to think it's ok to have a pop at them.

People don't seem to see the line between complaining about individuals and inciting racial hatred, do they?

You point out that they've uttered a mass of vile racial slurs and implied that travellers should be killed. Then they try to claim you're saying they can't ever be cross with travellers, whatever they've done!

It is fine to be cross about a particular person being an arse or breaking the law, be they white, black, green or a traveller. What is not fine is when you start bleating "all these white/black/green/ traveller people are like that", and worse.

I think the wisest people are those that are aware of what they don't know but know how they could find out if they wanted or needed to. Far wiser than those who call them ignorant.

Points of view are not really the same as lacking general knowledge, though. Plenty of people know a lot about a subject and are still very vocal (wherever they are on the political spectrum) about their dislike (nay, hatred) of a certain group.

"I work in an admin role for the local council."

Wow! So you work for local govt and yet have no knowledge of politics?! That's genuinely frightening!

"Obviously I want my son to grow up in a safe environment but I don't understand how me knowing what the holocaust is or what went on in the war or before will impact that."

You're doing nothing to ensure that he grows up in a safe environment.

You knowing how the holocaust and similar atrocities came about helps YOU to do what you can to provide a safe environment for your child.

"telling him about things that happened even before his great grandparents were born won't affect him either." Sorry but I genuinely believe you're wrong and I don't think I will be the only person to think so either.

"Because if everyone thought like you, we'd have another holocaust on our hands before we knew it." Excellently put

I was filming in London recently for an upcoming cookery show on C4 - get me! Anyway, I was chatting to one of the young researchers who was asking us about the regional food we were cooking.

She asked whereabouts in the country Dorset was and what it actually was. Was it a county? She was from Shropshire so only really knew Shrewsbury, Birmingham and London. I was a little taken aback I must admit, but hid it well.

"We've had several genocides since ww2, (and ongoing ones to this day, dafur, rohinga) as well as terrible concentration camps still being run, North Korea being one."

Not in western Europe, we haven't. The average person has very little influence on what happens outside their own narrow sphere. What can I do about the situation in NK? Very little, sadly. I can, however, march against the EDL, vote for parties without racist policies, encourage others to think in a more critical way than 'fuckin Muslims' or whatever.

I cannot go to Pyeongyang and say 'Kim Jong Un, what are you doing you twat?'

"It is fine to be cross about a particular person being an arse or breaking the law, be they white, black, green or a traveller"

Exactly. But often (on here too), you can hear people saying stuff about how travellers are all dirty, leave a mess, start fights etc etc. That banning them from pubs is fair enough because they always start trouble and so on.

Exactly how the holocaust started. Demonise a group, make it seem fair enough to hate them, make it seem like they don't belong in your community, and people will be happy to turn a blind eye when you start rounding them up.

Actually, I like to think I have a very good general knowledge (I'm quite an asset on quiz nights! But its only really based on things that interest me - history, literature, classical music, food etc. Its really apparent when watching things like Pointless that my knowledge of sports/science etc is quite poor. Because they are subjects which don't really appeal.

I have heard of the holocaust but I have never heard of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

To me, if someone mentioned [huge event or happening] I was not aware of, or didn't know about, my first instinct would be to google it and at least get the top line about it. That may then go further obut at very least I'd know what it was.
(Same as I do if someone uses a word I don't know - I have a chrome dictionary extension so I double click and the definition pops up.)

I wouldn't just go "oh well I don't know and it doesn't personally affect me so that's that".

P.S. my children's great-grandparents weren't born after the holocaust, and I'm one of those millennial snowflakes.

I'd be very surprised if all eight of your son's great-grandparents (your grandparents and his father's grandparents) were born after 1945.

"Plenty of people know a lot about a subject and are still very vocal (wherever they are on the political spectrum) about their dislike (nay, hatred) of a certain group."

I don't think that's quite the point, though.

If you are aware of how the holocaust started, or the Korean war, or apartheid or the troubles, you're far more likely to recognise when similar situations are starting.

Anyone who knows the subject can see that there are parallels between 1930s Germany and contemporary Europe. And people who are aware of that history are far less likely to sleepwalk into that position.

If people understood more about the holocaust and the drip-drip of poisonous rhetoric that led up to it, perhaps they would think more carefully before they shared stuff on facebook.

Perhaps some of them do know. In my more cynical moments, I sometimes think that knowledge of history just teaches people just how much they can get away with.

@ProfessorofPerspective I couldn't point to where Shropshire was on a map.

@SoupDragon* I think the wisest people are those that are aware of what they don't know but know how they could find out if they wanted or needed to. Far wiser than those who call them ignorant.*

I do always think it's a strength to admit that you don't know something but are willing to try and find out. It's rarely embraced though.

Perhaps some of them do know. In my more cynical moments, I sometimes think that knowledge of history just teaches people just how much they can get away with.

That's the people who compose the perfectly pitched bollocks and get it going. I do notice how the original poster often can't punctuate or spell, but can play readers' emotions like a lute.

It's like they're putting it on to sound like an ordinary concerned member of the public or something. Someone who is too genuine to have an agenda, and couldn't possible be making anything up...

Alastair Campbell could learn from them.

just bloody Google it and expand your minds!

But many people don't want to - and that is the real problem, lack of interest/curiosity. They don't want to use their brain.

I simply cannot understand the mindset

Not in western Europe, we haven't. The average person has very little influence on what happens outside their own narrow sphere. What can I do about the situation in NK? Very little, sadly. I can, however, march against the EDL, vote for parties without racist policies, encourage others to think in a more critical way than 'fuckin Muslims' or whatever.

Western Europe have been involved in a negative way for some so I don't think we can dismiss it just because its not on the doorstep, ways to get involved are the same as what you'd do if genocide broke out in France, write to politicians, protest, ask the government to ban companies that profit off NK, donate to charities that help those in areas where genocide is occuring, write to politicians to pressure them to get involved.

"Western Europe have been involved in a negative way for some so I don't think we can dismiss it just because its not on the doorstep, ways to get involved are the same as what you'd do if genocide broke out in France, write to politicians, protest, ask the government to ban companies that profit off NK, donate to charities that help those in areas where genocide is occuring, write to politicians to pressure them to get involved."

Of course we can get involved, but given the state of the world, there's an awful lot one could get involved in. I'm talking about stuff that, realistically, the average person is likely to do.

"I work in an admin role for the local council"
What the hell does that have to do with your failure to vote?

I couldn't point to where Shropshire was on a map

But you'd know it was a county? And roughly what area of the country? Ie not in Scotland or south of London?

My sons eldest living grand parent is his great grandad who was born in 1949. His only grandparents he has were born in the 70's.

My job doesn't have anything to do with my failure to vote. Someone asked me what I did for a living.

I didn't vote out of choice, because I don't understand what's going on so I'd rather not vote.

I've got really good general knowledge-but I think it's because I've always read a lot. You pick lots of things up from books without realising it. I've also got a pretty good memory.
I sometimes am quite surprised by the things people don't know-but then they'd be surprised at how absolutely awful I am at anything Mathematical, so each to their own I suppose.