Do you have patience for really ignorant people?
Asked by
Pandora (
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April 19th, 2021
I recently came from a funeral and met a relative that believes Bill Gates is behind the Covid vaccine to track people and Covid vaccine is a worldwide conspiracy to control people and get rich. He also doesn’t believe Covid kills anyone and may not even be real despite several relatives of his who works in the Medical field who told him they have witness Covid patients and four other relatives who had covid and said it’s not anything like the flu and two of them are long haulers. One of his cousins is just 48 and in excellent shape and health before Covid and now she says she has heart issues and is exhausted most of the time and the doctor is also concerned about her liver.
She caught Covid in December.
When asked how will he feel if his grandson gets covid from him he said if he does, then it is what it is. I had to stop speaking to him about Covid after that because I could not believe he would have so little regard for his Grandsons health. I always thought myself patient but this was just unbelievable. I feel it’s willful ignorance on his part because Covid is an inconvenience to him and he truly believes if he got it he is healthy enough to survive it.
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33 Answers
I’ve met a couple of those before and no, I have no patience for willful ignorance.
These days, you don’t really have a choice. It appears to be the national pastime.
Once they start talking about Bill Gates poisoning and controlling the world I know they are too far gone and I either change the subject or find a way to move on to another person to talk to.
I used to try to tell them where their thinking is wrong, but they are too brainwashed.
Can’t fix stupid.
Don’t waste your time or energy (they think the Earth is flat too) !
I’ve no time for them. Willful ignorance is a kind of passive aggression, it can’t be reasoned with.
While you can try to discuss these things with people in a rational way, you’re going to have a couple of problems:
1. These people are immune to information.
2. There are legitimate reasons to criticize Gates. And there is a kernel of truth (albeit a small one) in their critique. They sense something is wrong, but don’t understand why.
@Pandora: “Covid vaccine is a worldwide conspiracy to control people and get rich.”
Gates’ opposition to vaccine IP waiver is disgusting, and he’s against it because it means more money for him.
I try to have patience for the ignorant, but when that ignorance is comvined with stubborness, my patience ebbs fast.
No. I don’t have patience. Is that a good or bad thing? Not sure which.
Some people are capable of believing the most bizarre things even when presented with facts of reality. How is this possible with otherwise reasonable people? I don’t personally know of anyone that believes SARS-CoV-2 or the disease it causes (COVID-19) is a hoax but I’ve read their rantings and wish that I could talk to them. I’ve had discussions with such people on various religions and Holy scriptures. They fascinate me.
@Pandora: “What is vaccine IP waiver?”
Please look into TRIPS waiver. “Intellectual property” law is keeping us from fighting this global pandemic because pharmaceutical companies want to profit from this. This is far more important than anything else related to masks, etc that we’re all talking about.
Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Tammy Baldwin, Sherrod Brown, Richard Blumenthal, Chris Murphy, Jeffrey Merkley, Edward Markey, Chris Van Hollen, and Raphael Warnock have all urged Biden to support the TRIPS waiver.
Not often, but regarding Covid I am. I understand both sides of the argument so it doesn’t upset me. Both sides are using ‘my body my choice’ now, for different reasons which is ironic.
Nope I still meet people that don’t think it’s real, you try and tell them ,that the whole world is behind I don’t think you could get every country on earth to go along with a hoax.
I also say tell that to all the dead people that died from it.
It’s idiots like these that make me believe the human race isn’t intelligent enough to get through this pandemic.
@KNOWITALL I would actually understand that. But believing in junk conspiracy to justify their willful ignorance is annoying as hell. I even understand people who believe that vaccines haven’t been studied long enough and so they worry about any possible long-term effects. Doesn’t make sense to me because the illness has one possible long-term effect called death, but I can understand being scared of getting a vaccine because fear isn’t always rational. I respect a person who is honest about that but jumping on the conspiracy bandwagon or endangering others (because he’s not being careful and freely visits his grandson) because you refuse to say you are scared is reckless.
@SQUEEKY2 He believes all the doctors are lying about Covid and all those people died of other causes and or all the governments have doctors manufacturing or altering death certificates. When asked where does he get this info he says from different places on the internet. Meanwhile, he doesn’t believe his own family members.
There are two types of ignorance – genuine and willful. Genuine ignorance is not a crime. None of us are born with preloaded intelligence in our DNA. We learn along the way. So, we are duty bound to show patience with genuine ignorance and maybe try to point those in the right direction (if they let us do it, that is). The other type is willful ignorance. People have wrong info and form opinions around that wrong info. When others point out their mistakes with proof, they ignore, ridicule and even double down on their fallacious theories. Such people are actually not ignorant but deceitful. Patience stops being a virtue when we are dealing with them. You can wake a sleeping person up but can’t do that to a person who’s pretending to be sleeping….
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I’ve gotten to the point that I don’t even try to engage people in conversation anymore. I always used to be pretty outgoing and talkative, but there are so many morons out there these days, I’m near to turning introvert. It’s not worth the bother to be friendly any more. Now and then, when a shit for brains like that tries to lay that conspiracy think shit on me, I just make up shit of my own, and toss it back at them. I may have posted this before, but a few months back we had taken the 2 year old grand son to the play park, and a dumb shit asked my wife and I why we were wearing masks. And asked if we believe the “Covid Hoax”. I told him. you can’t snow us man. Covid was concocted by Republicans in a secret lab, to kill all liberals. That is common knowledge. YOU don’t wear a mask, because you guys were secretly given the antidote. Admit it! He looked at me like I was nuts and walked away. LOL fuck these ass clowns, I’ll play their stupid games.
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My daughter and I were talking about this same subject last night at dinner.
No, you cannot fix stupid people.
@Nomore_lockout
– great answer. I am going to use it myself. People really are dumb.
@elbanditoroso Feel free. You might get a good laugh at the responses, a deer in the head lights this guy is nuts kind of look. They should know lol
Nope. One of my pet peeves.
@JLeslie As my Old Pappy used to say, Turn about is fair play. Right? ; )
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