To think that 45 year old British citizen should know what I'm talking about.....

[Bekindtoyourknees]

when I mention the wars in Slovenia, Bosnia, Croatia etc?

His excuse: 'I wasn't there, so why should I know about them?'

I thought there was nothing left to shock me at work, seems I was wrong

He might not have taken in known much about those wars but doesn't he read newspapers, listen to the wireless radio or watch television? Has he lost his memory perhaps?

YANBU.

Some people are alarmingly ignorant about things which aren't happening at the end of their own noses.

I think it's quite possible not to know about them unless you read newspapers or watch the news. I know a lot of people who switch off from current affairs as they deem it doom and gloom. I think unless the war affects them directly then they're not really that interested.

YANBU

Some people live in a bubble of ignorance and seem happy to do so.

I once started a thread as I was shocked that a friend of mine didn't know the dates of WWI and WWII. Lots of people replied saying they didn't know either. I just thought it was standard general knowledge.

Is it okay if a 30 year old British citizen doesn't know much about them?

YANBU to hope that he would know but YABU to think that most people are aware.I imagine that the majority of the British population know and care very little about this. Have you actually heard anyone IRL discussing the current situation in the Ukraine? I'm not saying it's right or wrong but I think that area of the world is of little interest to the British population.

I only ever remember covering the battle of the Somme at school and we very briefly touched on a few aspects of WW2, but mainly about ratioining and how people lived. Nothing about how it started etc.
My knowledge to date is from reading and taking an interest otherwise I wouldn't know anything about it.

I know people like this - never been more than 30-40 miles from where they were born, 50 miles away might as well be a foreign country, never watch the news or read papers. Anything that happens in the big wide world they don't WANT to know about, as they just want to live in their little bubble with life carrying on the same as it was when they were at school.

YANBU but depressingly common. Combination of not very bright/interested in the world at large. It's the 'why should I know' attitude that gets me. Care people!

You are NBU, but there are many people who simply do not take an interest in things outside their bubble.

He'd have been sorted if any of the leaders involved in the conflict were Facebook friends, otherwise forget it.

We SHOULD know about these things, we SHOULD care about what people do in the name of power, greed or religion.

When London was awarded the Olympics, I was pleased but someone I work with said "god diabolo why do you care, we don't live in London".

When I was upset about the 7/7 suicide attacks, the same woman made a similar comment.

Ignorance is bliss to some people.

BabyDubsEverywhere It's ok not to know much about them, I just can't believe someone would be completely unaware.

People are ignorant and apparently proud to be so

I was just thinking about the Balkan conflict recently and ordered a book about it from Amazon, since I realised I don't know enough about the history (I was 10 when the conflict started, so only remember things like the siege of Sarajevo). My book arrived today and I've been flicking through it already and looking stuff up on Wikipedia.

I don't know - the general lack of knowledge of many people shocks me. But then, I have an insatiable appetite to know everything, watch endless documentaries and read all the time. I guess everyone isn't the same.

These people who live in there bubble are also NIMBYS. They don't give a shit unless it affects them. The scary thing is these people are allowed to vote.

Well I wasn't aware of these wars and don't live life thinking "oh well it's not happening to me so I don't care".

It's not like it was news for one week and you could have been on holiday so missed it.

I do despair of some people's lack of curiosity about things external to themselves

I made a conscious decision to checkout of most current affairs last year and now I mostly get my news from MN I do check out links and things though from news section or fwr etc. I feel generally happier though. I felt I was being bogged down by thoughts about bad things I couldn't do anything about iyswim. I choose my topics now I suppose and ignore most of the rest. I do watch local news a couple of times a week at work.

People who don't know history drive me up the wall.

With the situation now looking very Austria '38, Sudetenland '38 and Belgium '14 (and Crimea 1854) people should be really thinking about how they want the government to respond and what lessons we have learned from the past.

diabolo You have reminded me of something. I was getting on a plane from Turkey after a holiday. It was the day of the biggest ever terrorist bomb being detonated in the UK. There were newspapers available and someone mentioned the headline. A woman went 'oh my God'. Pause. 'Oh it was in Manchester, so what.' The flight was London-bound. I was agog.

Did know someone who had a bf in California who was getting seriously peeved that he had not called her for 3 nights and she was going to dump him when and if he decided to call.

Took her a lot to grasp that the reason he had not called was probably due to the fact that he had probably more things on his mind at that point in time due to the out of control wildfires that were sweeping through his town San Diego and he could have lost his life/house/phone.

She was 39 at the time and did not listen to the news/read the paper/take any notice of anything outside her little bubble.

I do not do any of the above but I obviously must pick up stuff subconsciously as without reading or watching tv or anything know that there is a problem in Ukraine. Putin is sending troops in to protect the Russian speaking people of Ukraine and they are turning round and saying what are we being protected from.

I think that's what is going on but who knows just might have picked something up wrong.

"Is it okay if a 30 year old British citizen doesn't know much about them?"

Don't blush! Yes I think under 35 ish and it's fine not to know. They were raging in the early 1990s (how did that 20 years slip by so quickly!?) and I don't expect children would necessarily be interested in current events.

But I do expect adults to have some recollection of the big new stories, even if they don't follow them in detail. So I would wonder a bit if someone had no idea that there was a protracted war in the former Yugoslavia, and I'd have expected the big emotive stories (eg concentration camps, siege of Sarajevo, NATO air strikes) to have stuck, as well as the new phrase "ethnic cleansing".

I wouldn't however expect people to remember the detail of the conflict though or the politics surrounding it all, or even the difference between a Serb, a Croat and a Bosniak.

Maybe if you'd said Yugoslavia or the Balkans he'd have known more. A lot of people at the time found the coverage very confusing. They could not hope to understand the whys and wherefores so didn't take much in. Maybe he just filed it under don't need to remember this. What does it really matter if the only issue he's had through not knowing is disappointing you?

I don't really watch the news or read newspapers. It's depressing and what am I going to do about any of it anyway. I find out stuff through sharing on the internet but I don't need a lot of detail on serial killers or Jimmy Savile. I'll sign a petition and go to demos etc about stuff that matters. I write to my MP etc. I do give a shit about people other than me.

That said I have read a book on the aftermath of the Balkan war and I've been to Belgrade and seen the bombed buildings and have Serbian and Croatian friends. And had a personal history of a crazed plot to kill, well there you go, I can't remember his name, thingy, the president, related to be by someone who lived in his house as a child!

Milosevic! Just looked it up. I used to know his name well.

You don't need everyone to know everything. It's too much. As long as some people are keeping tabs.