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

[coulditbeme2323]

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

This question is prompted from reading comments online re The Met Gala?

Now let me prefix this by saying I have no interest in reality tv, Showbiz mags, etc - but surely there are some people who you know who they are because everybody does!

There were people saying "who" on a photo of Kim Kardashian. I have never seen an episode of the show, have no interest in her, but of course I know who she is - because how can you not?

Another British example is Jordan/Kate Price. No interest in her, but she has literally been headline news in The UK for 20 years. If you live in The UK - surely its impossible to not at least know who she is?

By just living in the world.

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

@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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

KK has built a clothing brand that Wall Street has valued at 5 billion dollars.

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.

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 just wonder if you had a company worth 5 billion?

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

I doubt it to be honest, and I am not being rude - but I doubt it.

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.

Because the percentage of the world that have companies worth 5 billion is minute.

So again I doubt it.

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.

To be honest I think both parts of your statement can be true.

Kanye is a perfect example. Clearly in many many ways unhinged, but also built up one of the most successful trainer brands of all time.

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

And you're judging other people?

Of course I am not saying that!

You said both parts of my statement were true. That was part two.

If you're going to make posts judging people's intelligence, you might want to make sure you're paying attention.

I am by no means saying KK is a Sheryl Sandberg - of course not.

What I am saying is that on one hand you are quite right. KK is famous because her Father was the lead defender on what's probably the most high profile murder trial of all time and of course that infamous tape.

That being said, it doesn't mean it's not impressive starting a clothing brand that the stock market values at 5 billion dollars.

It's made less impressive by the fact that if she hadn't made her name for herself in other ways first, which many people deem as "seedy", she wouldn't have been able to. You or I could have marketed the same clothes and no one would have wanted them.

She hasn't done this from scratch. She's had a leg up from a lot of dodgy things and she's capitalised on it. In every aspect of her life.

That's why a lot of people aren't interested in her, or don't find her impressive or don't want to know anything about her. It's not exactly rocket science.

Granted KK probably not the best example because of the tape, but lets use a better example.

Michael Jordan has the most successful sneak brand of the last 20 years, and he had a massive leg up because he could play basketball.

But he made something of himself. That in and of itself is impressive, whether you have made a fiver or five billion.

It doesn't change that people who are not interested in basketball or trainers might not retain the information of who he is. In the same way that people not interested in reality stars with sex tapes and dodgy dad's won't retain who KK is.

Doesn't change that you've been very judgemental of people who don't buy into celebrity culture and therefore don't take up space in their memories of who someone you see as "huge" is.

I have a very good memory and so I see or read something about someone once and it usually sticks, whether I want it to or not. But I don't judge other people for that not being the case. I'm willing to bet that if I gave you the name of someone "huge" from something I follow that you don't, you'd probably not know them.

I don't buy into celeb culture, that was never my point.