I can't believe people don't know that?

[Doingtheboxerbeat]

Does anyone else get annoyed when people ask this? To me, It's sounds so smug and ignorant at the same time.

Now I understand Google is free and that we have answers to all things at our fingertips, but you would need to have starting point first. You can't just tap on your device Google, fill in the gaps in my knowledge or tell me all the things I don't know, about the history of everything.

We can't know everything and this is so different from those who don't want to know stuff.
Like the guy I went on a date with last year - I made a throw away comment about us being typical Gen Xers and he asked me what tf is a Gen Xer and when I tried to explain he promptly stuck his tongue in my mouth 🤭 he didn't give a shit, obviously. Like I said, that's a bit different.

I was just coming on to post that 😊

m.xkcd.com/1053/

Love this! Even though I now have to wipe my wine off the wall ...

And buffalo’s don’t have wings!

There's something bloody annoying about being told you're wrong by a person who has paid fuck all attention to anything beyond their own small world all their life, and who wears ignorance with pride.

This is the kind of thing that amazes me too. I remember telling my DP that I’d watched an episode of The Crown which covered the Aberfan Disaster and he said ‘what’s Aberfan’? He’s a very intelligent man in his 50s and couldn’t understand how he never heard of this. However, I was also polite and quietly astonished!

I’m less polite when I realised that some people genuinely think that drawer is spelt draw or other things of that nature 😁

I mean if you're a UK person and you don't know Scotland has a different education system that's genuinely wild. I wouldn't be shouting about it. Or putting it on this thread. It's like not knowing they have different flags or bank note designs or something.

I also hated "draw" instead of "drawer" until someone pointed out to me that they did it because they thought "drawer" was pronounced "draw-er" and I couldn't really argue with that logic.

I once had an American boyfriend who was living in UK.

He had a Masters Degree (not in history), who was surprised that we didn't celebrate Thanksgiving.

I saw Randall Munroe talking about this in London a couple of weeks ago. 💕

Not really.
Why would people know that if it doesn't affect them ?
I only know because I have read it on various MN threads.
Not everyone is on MN.

I work with a guy who is astonishingly ignorant and has absolutely no curiosity about the world beyond the parameters of his own life. I never comment on it but christ I eyeroll inwardly.

A lot of people (me included) hadn't heard about Aberfan until The Crown covered it, just not old enough to remember it being on the news maybe?

I'm on a Disneyland Paris group and every single week there's a post from someone asking if they can just use £ when they're there. How has someone grown to adulthood and not know about currencies? This is after they've booked their flight or whatever to France.

Why should people know that Scotland has a different education system to England and Wales? If they don’t live in Scotland or nearby, don’t have friends or relatives there, don’t travel there for holidays or work, why should they? If they want their children to go to school there they’ll do the research. Otherwise, no point. It’s like researching the system in Belgium despite having no interest in moving there.

But I have used different currencies in places. I’ve used sterling (cash) in India.

There are some very basic things that do shock me when people don’t know it. When the world wars ended, who our prime minister currently is never mind who has been PM historically.

I have very broad general knowledge but enjoy learning pretty much anything new, so always open to someone introducing a knowledge gap to me!

I (think) I know quite a a bit about British politics. I'm always astounded when, periodically, red tops run articles about how few people recognise the current cabinet.

But on the whole, I Remember that I'm just a bit of a political nerd. I know bugger all about loads of things, so why should everyone know what I know about politics? And I probably know an eighth, if that, of what there is to know about even that.

I'm not a snob, but sometimes I am shocked at some peoples lack of knowledge. I wouldn't laughingly point it out though.

One younger girl I worked with arrived late because there was a traffic jam and 'they were all driving so slow?' They all turned off at the cemetery road. I had to explain to her what a procession was, and that she couldn't pass the slow cars out of respect, and also that they wouldn't stop at normal stop signs. She just hadn't experienced it before, so didn't know.

This is the same young woman who has a handbag with the Playboy logo all over it. I wonder if she knows what it signifies, or just thing they are cute bunnies? I haven't, and won't ask.

I'm Canadian, and have had the difference between Great Britain and the United Kingdom explained to me a few times, but I'm not sure I've got it right.

I suppose we all have spheres of interest...I can recognise several different individual mountains from the viewpoint of a plane, but until about 10 years ago, I believed that Robin Hood was an actual person. I care about hiking and skiing passionately, history less so.

Yes exactly. I know that now because I learnt it on here. Prior to that I'd never really thought about it, because I had no need to.

You have a knowledge gap (as do a lot of people on this thread) around the concept of educational inequalities/disparities, the contributing factors to that and the lasting impact it has, so maybe start learning about that.

I find that really shocking. My parents were children during WWII and my mother was in occupied Paris. Some of the things that she let slip were horrifying. There's no excuse for not knowing these kinds of things, lest we repeat them.

And UK plugs. And astonishment that there aren’t “nuggets and chips type kids meals” at expensive restaurants.

Wales has a different system too.

If I'm honest, there have been times over the last few years when I have got a tiny bit muddled over who the current prime minister is. The knowledge is there somewhere, there have just been quite a few prime ministers recently and I have at times had to stop and have a little think before I commit to a name 😳.

I think that's the difference between not knowing that the top bit of men's football in the UK is the Premier League (no-one who ever watches the news, sees a newspaper etc can miss that) - current and ubiquitous! I wouldn't voice the thought, but I really would struggle to believe someone who said that.

OTOH, if someone didn't know that before 1992 it was called Division 1, then I'd just assume they were too young to remember the change because even though older people and footie fans would just know, it's no longer ubiquitous