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?

I once did a Christmas quiz where one of the questions was to name a country where wild reindeer live. One of my team mates looked very pleased with herself and whispered “It’s a trick question - reindeer don’t exist!”

The thing is OP, there's not really such a thing as general knowledge. There's common knowledge, but that doesn't mean everyone knows it.

People only know what they have been told. If someone has never been told or taught about Chernobyl, how would they know about it? It's not their fault. I'm 28 and a history graduate and I have never ever been taught about it, I just know about it from wider reading - wider reading that I would not have done if I was not such a history geek.

The same with Rome. If no one has ever told them what sights there are in Rome, how are they to know? Or if they have been told but have forgotten because it's not important to them? I've been told countless things about Formula 1 from DH but it doesn't even register because I dont find it interesting.

Colosseum
Statue of Liberty
Eiffel Tower

Most people know which cities these landmarks belong to without having visited them.

We had a powercut today. My lovely, intelligent 14 year old asked, seriously, if that meant we couldn't use the car now...
FFS

I didn't know about chernobyl.
I wasn't even born when it happened and my parents never really watched/read the news or documentarys when I was growing up.
It wasn't taught at school.
So how would I know about it?

It's not restricted to a specific list of events!

It's being aware of the world around you.

So you may be too young to remember Chernobyl, but what about things like the Arab Spring, the passenger plane shot down by the Russians, the second Iraq war etc..,

@hidinginthenightgarden Reading?

The ‘we didn’t do it at school’ comments are depressing. You can’t expect school to cover everything - some interest/awareness in your surroundings would be good.
DD (23) says people often say to her ‘how do you know that?’ and she wants to reply ‘how do you not?’ But doesn’t, since she’s quite polite. I’m with you OP. I don’t expect everyone (or anyone) to know everything, but there do seem to be people who take pleasure ink knowing nothing. It’s why we are in the political mess we are in.

I know I have large gaps in my knowledge, particularly geography (I once told people my Sister was climbing Everest because I confused it with Mont Blanc ) but it is not something I'm proud of.
I don't necessarily judge people if they don't know certain things - the thing I don't get is when people wear their ignorance as a lack of pride and have no desire to learn new things. That baffles me.

Every time there's a thread like this, there's several comments complaining of people being proud of being ignorant, but I never see any evidence of it. Who, on this thread, is doing so? "But we didn't learn this at school" is not the same thing as showing off.

tectonic I think it’s the people defending it, saying how could they be expected to know it, taking no responsibility for their own education...feels a bit like they’re proud of not knowing stuff. Like people saying why or how would someone know what to do in Rome? It’s silly. Anyone with any connection with the outside world would know about the coliseum at least, surely?

Colosseum...
Does t extend to spelling it correctly after the interference of autocorrect obviously...

I was horrified when my shampoo ist hadn't heard of the Magna Carta.

I laughed though when my child asked what a petticoat was.

I think it’s the people defending it, saying how could they be expected to know it, taking no responsibility for their own education...feels a bit like they’re proud of not knowing stuff.

I disagree. It's just a simple explanation, and a natural reaction to being on the receiving end of what feels like judgemental snobbery. That's not the same thing as being proud.

As I mentioned earlier, I've been ridiculed and bullied at work for being the weirdo who didn't know about D-list celebrities and reality TV. The snobbery I received didn't make me want to watch the programmes to find out more. It just made me think "Well sod you then" and made me even less interested to find out more about the subject.

Yes. Often surprised by other's lack of knowledge but then I remind myself I'm old and most of the GK I have is pretty much out of date. And younger people aren't ignorant, they know quantities of stuff that I know nothing about.

It is annoying in the age of Google and wiki to hear ‘we didn’t do it at school.’ Information is so much easier to access now. If something is mentioned in conversation or on tv and you don’t know about it you can do a quick search and find out.

I've been ridiculed and bullied at work for being the weirdo who didn't know about D-list celebrities and reality TV.

I've never seen a single Love Island, GoT or Strictly but I'm still aware/pick up the popular references from them. They just filter into general public consciousness and the media.

And also, knowing who is shagging who in towie is a bit different to being aware of (say) a terrorist attack here.

Anyway, there's nobody in the world who could possibly know about everything. I'm sure everyone in this thread who's claimed they have excellent general knowledge will eventually come across something they don't know much about.

There’s loads I don’t know tectonic but there is (or used to be) a body of stuff that most people know. It’s just...out there. From listening to the radio, listening to people talk, watching the news...I don’t know. All kinds of ways.

I thought the Elgin marbles were actually marbles of the small glass variety. I'm 47. This revelation that they were actually statues only happened 5 years ago

I’m always finding new stuff I didn’t know anything about. Life would feel empty if there was nothing more to learn.

My grandfather left school at 12, but was self educated from then on and because of that, immensely knowledgeable about a whole lot of things.

You don't have to just learn things at school do you? The difference is, some people spend their lives wanting to learn. Others learn only if they have to (and some of course, not even then).

This thread reminded me of a Facebook memory post of mine that popped up a few days ago.
It was something about a percentage of children thinking fish fingers contain chicken.
As I was reading the comments one of my friends had commented about the spaghetti trees.
It made me think. Is there that much fake news/articles on the internet now maybe people are just switching off and not quite trusting what they read.

In 10 years, a power cut WILL stop the car from working.

I thought the Elgin marbles were actually marbles of the small glass variety

Didn't you wonder why on earth the Greeks were so keen to have them back??