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?

You made a post suggesting people must know who people are, and be pretending not to know. You haven't once considered that people might genuinely not be interested and therefore even if they've seen the name or a news story, they haven't retained the information.

I hate celebrity culture, but can retain the information regardless. My friend loves it but can't retain the information about anything she's not interested in.

Some people just don't know who famous people are. End of.

I can except that in some circumstances, but I do think people say "who" for absolutely no reason.

That's as maybe, but did it really need a whole judgy post about people clearly knowing and pretending not to, just because you know who this person is?

I'm glad you can accept it though.

I can accept it in the cases of perhaps really old people etc.

But I would expect the large percentage of adults (regardless of what they like or dislike) to know who Trump, Musk, KK, David Beckham, Taylor Swift etc are.

Why? Why are you expecting the majority of people to know anything at all?

What does it matter to you?

And why old people but not people who are young but struggle to retain faces or names? Bit ageist.

Why old people but not people who don't watch TV or go out much?

What about people with learning difficulties?

Have you considered people who just don't care?

Why would you expect everyone to recognise everyone you deem as "massive" or "important"?.

If you didn't know Trump yes I would consider you probably had some learning difficulties.

Or maybe they just don't watch or read the news or listen to the radio.

Some people don't want to know. I wish I could avoid everything to do with what he's doing to be honest. Depressing as hell. I'd love to live in blissful ignorance of who he was and what he does.

But you do know, because it's impossible not to know him!

Because I take an interest in current affairs, against my better judgement these days.

Ask one of my relatives who's president of the US and she'd have to look it up because she doesn't watch the news, barely uses her phone and doesn't WANT to know what's going on so she doesn't look for it. And no, she's not "really old".

I find that incredible, and I suspect deep down you do as well.

No, that's just who she is and I've known her my whole life. She's always been this way, likes her bubble and isn't interested in what's going on outside of it.

Just because you don't know people who live in a way drastically different to you, doesn't make it "incredible" or unbelievable.

You know full well that 99% of people who don't have some sort of difficulty will know who Trump is.

Cite your source for that stat.

I don't have one.

If you state that there are lots of everyday people who don't know who Trump is or have never heard of him then sure I will accept what you are saying as your experience.

If she's designed the clothes, sourced ethically-produced fabrics, checked to see that the factories (in China or India, I bet) are run properly and pay proper wages, and sits over the spreadsheets till late, plus chairs meetings etc etc etc, then fair play to Kim.

Neither you nor I know whether this is the case. But I'd take some convincing.

I'm telling you there's lots of everyday people who don't know who all of the people you say you expect everyone to know are.

Yes, the majority will know Trump, but not everyone will. Less will know who KK is. Even less will know who particular sportspeople are. More will probably know who musicians are but lots won't.

How many people have you come across asking who Trump is? As he's now your favourite example?

I haven't had one person ask me who Trump is.

But as I say I don't challenge you. If in your world people don't know who Trump is then I accept that at face value.

So why is he your example for this, when it's about people not knowing who someone you'd expect everyone to know is?

I used him as an example because he is incredibly well known.

But you've never had anyone tell you, or pretend that, they don't know him so it's not relevant to your post.

But why do some people go to the effort of not only reading an article about someone that they don't know who they are but also typing "who" in the comments section?
Because seriously....it seems that is what some people do.

The post wasn't about any specific one person.

Assumption there is that they've read the article. Most people just look at the picture or see the name.

That's true.
You can clearly tell when the article hasn't been read and they are just commenting on a headline.
It still baffles me to why they do that. What a waste of their time.

Because a headline is supposed to reflect what's in the article. It did used to. It never does anymore, to make people click the link, but people still expect it to be reflective and therefore assume they can guess what's in the article.