Willful Ignorance: I dare say that any/all of us are guilty of willful ignorance to some extent or degree. "The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the...

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

I dare say that any/all of us are guilty of willful ignorance to some extent or degree.

"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool."—Richard Feynman

"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."—Aldous Huxley

Willful ignorance is the state and practice of ignoring any sensory input that appears to contradict one's inner model of reality. At heart, it is almost certainly driven by confirmation bias.

Willful ignorance differs from ordinary 'ignorance' — when someone is simply unaware of something — in that willfully ignorant people are fully aware of facts, resources and sources, but refuse to acknowledge them. Indeed, calling someone 'ignorant' shouldn’t really be a pejorative, but intentional and willful ignorance is an entirely different matter. In practice though, the word 'ignorance' has often come to mean 'willful ignorance', and indeed, in many non-English languages, the word based on the same stem ('ignore') actually carries that meaning.

Willful ignorance is sometimes referred to as tactical stupidity.

Depending on the nature and strength of an individual's pre-existing beliefs, willful ignorance can manifest itself in different ways. The practice can entail completely disregarding established facts, evidence and/or reasonable opinions if they fail to meet one's expectations. Often the willfully ignorant will make excuses, claiming that a source is unreliable, suggesting that an experiment was flawed or asserting that an opinion is too biased. More often than not this is simple circular reasoning: “I cannot agree with that source because it is untrustworthy because it disagrees with me”.

In other slightly more extreme cases, willful ignorance can involve outright refusal to read, hear or study, in any way, anything that does not conform to the willfully ignorant person's worldview.

With regard to oneself, this can even extend to f**e locked-in syndrome with complete unresponsiveness. Or with regard to others, to outright censorship of the material from others.

Carol Kelly

slatten49 wrote:

I dare say that any/all of us are guilty of willful ignorance to some extent or degree.

"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool."—Richard Feynman

"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."—Aldous Huxley

Willful ignorance is the state and practice of ignoring any sensory input that appears to contradict one's inner model of reality. At heart, it is almost certainly driven by confirmation bias.

Willful ignorance differs from ordinary 'ignorance' — when someone is simply unaware of something — in that willfully ignorant people are fully aware of facts, resources and sources, but refuse to acknowledge them. Indeed, calling someone 'ignorant' shouldn’t really be a pejorative, but intentional and willful ignorance is an entirely different matter. In practice though, the word 'ignorance' has often come to mean 'willful ignorance', and indeed, in many non-English languages, the word based on the same stem ('ignore') actually carries that meaning.

Willful ignorance is sometimes referred to as tactical stupidity.

Depending on the nature and strength of an individual's pre-existing beliefs, willful ignorance can manifest itself in different ways. The practice can entail completely disregarding established facts, evidence and/or reasonable opinions if they fail to meet one's expectations. Often the willfully ignorant will make excuses, claiming that a source is unreliable, suggesting that an experiment was flawed or asserting that an opinion is too biased. More often than not this is simple circular reasoning: “I cannot agree with that source because it is untrustworthy because it disagrees with me”.

In other slightly more extreme cases, willful ignorance can involve outright refusal to read, hear or study, in any way, anything that does not conform to the willfully ignorant person's worldview.

With regard to oneself, this can even extend to f**e locked-in syndrome with complete unresponsiveness. Or with regard to others, to outright censorship of the material from others.

I dare say that any/all of us are guilty of willfu... (show quote)

You may have Schiff or Nader in mind. At any rate, investigating an investigation could be called “willful ignorance”. Also, Juan Williams comes to mind.

Common_Sense_Matters

Carol Kelly wrote:

You may have Schiff or Nader in mind. At any rate, investigating an investigation could be called “willful ignorance”. Also, Juan Williams comes to mind.

Or perhaps you meant this:

Carol Kelly wrote:

The photos of all the new Obama National Monuments took my breath away. No, thank you, I don’t wish to visit any of them. I still don’t know why he was elected and re-elected and I certainly don’t think he should be out in the world...FREE.

Or more specifically this:

Carol Kelly wrote:

I certainly don’t think he should be out in the world...FREE.

Even though EVERYTHING you seem to think he did that you would claim was criminal in nature was thoroughly investigated and nothing charged already. You still hold onto that shred of hope that you will see Obama jailed even if he didn't do anything criminal.

ACP45 Loc: Rhode Island

Good definitions of "willful ignorance".

May I suggest to those on both the far right, and the far left, that they pay close attention to this post.

Putting you entire trust and faith in any one single individual, especially a politician, ..... enough said.

Use your own moral compass and call it like you see it, and do not blindly follow any individual, party, faith, group, wh**ever. No one is always right or infallible all the time. Life is a learning process, and when you think you have all the answers, it is a sure sign you have a lot left to learn.

Rose42

slatten49 wrote:

...Willful ignorance is sometimes referred to as tactical stupidity....

Well then society has an increasing number of tacticians.

We all have our moments but we are all also experts at self deception.

bahmer

Carol Kelly wrote:

You may have Schiff or Nader in mind. At any rate, investigating an investigation could be called “willful ignorance”. Also, Juan Williams comes to mind.

Amen and Amen

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

Rose42 wrote:

Well then society has an increasing number of tacticians.

We all have our moments but we are all also experts at self deception.

"Brevity is the soul of wit." More often than not, you exhibit brevity, soul and/or wit in your comments .

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

ACP45 wrote:

Good definitions of "willful ignorance".... (show quote)

Indeed, ACP45...Nice post.

A day without learning something new is a day wasted.

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

Carol Kelly wrote:

At any rate, investigating an investigation could be called “willful ignorance."

OK...then, 8-10 B******i investigations without desired results was a prime example of "willful ignorance."

Hug

slatten49 wrote:

I dare say that any/all of us are guilty of willful ignorance to some extent or degree.

"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool."—Richard Feynman

"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."—Aldous Huxley

Willful ignorance is the state and practice of ignoring any sensory input that appears to contradict one's inner model of reality. At heart, it is almost certainly driven by confirmation bias.

Willful ignorance differs from ordinary 'ignorance' — when someone is simply unaware of something — in that willfully ignorant people are fully aware of facts, resources and sources, but refuse to acknowledge them. Indeed, calling someone 'ignorant' shouldn’t really be a pejorative, but intentional and willful ignorance is an entirely different matter. In practice though, the word 'ignorance' has often come to mean 'willful ignorance', and indeed, in many non-English languages, the word based on the same stem ('ignore') actually carries that meaning.

Willful ignorance is sometimes referred to as tactical stupidity.

Depending on the nature and strength of an individual's pre-existing beliefs, willful ignorance can manifest itself in different ways. The practice can entail completely disregarding established facts, evidence and/or reasonable opinions if they fail to meet one's expectations. Often the willfully ignorant will make excuses, claiming that a source is unreliable, suggesting that an experiment was flawed or asserting that an opinion is too biased. More often than not this is simple circular reasoning: “I cannot agree with that source because it is untrustworthy because it disagrees with me”.

In other slightly more extreme cases, willful ignorance can involve outright refusal to read, hear or study, in any way, anything that does not conform to the willfully ignorant person's worldview.

With regard to oneself, this can even extend to f**e locked-in syndrome with complete unresponsiveness. Or with regard to others, to outright censorship of the material from others.

I dare say that any/all of us are guilty of willfu... (show quote)

Very informative. Thank you.Slatten49, I learn a lot from you.

dtucker300 Loc: Vista, CA

slatten49 wrote:

I dare say that any/all of us are guilty of willful ignorance to some extent or degree.

"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool."—Richard Feynman

"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."—Aldous Huxley

Willful ignorance is the state and practice of ignoring any sensory input that appears to contradict one's inner model of reality. At heart, it is almost certainly driven by confirmation bias.

Willful ignorance differs from ordinary 'ignorance' — when someone is simply unaware of something — in that willfully ignorant people are fully aware of facts, resources and sources, but refuse to acknowledge them. Indeed, calling someone 'ignorant' shouldn’t really be a pejorative, but intentional and willful ignorance is an entirely different matter. In practice though, the word 'ignorance' has often come to mean 'willful ignorance', and indeed, in many non-English languages, the word based on the same stem ('ignore') actually carries that meaning.

Willful ignorance is sometimes referred to as tactical stupidity.

Depending on the nature and strength of an individual's pre-existing beliefs, willful ignorance can manifest itself in different ways. The practice can entail completely disregarding established facts, evidence and/or reasonable opinions if they fail to meet one's expectations. Often the willfully ignorant will make excuses, claiming that a source is unreliable, suggesting that an experiment was flawed or asserting that an opinion is too biased. More often than not this is simple circular reasoning: “I cannot agree with that source because it is untrustworthy because it disagrees with me”.

In other slightly more extreme cases, willful ignorance can involve outright refusal to read, hear or study, in any way, anything that does not conform to the willfully ignorant person's worldview.

With regard to oneself, this can even extend to f**e locked-in syndrome with complete unresponsiveness. Or with regard to others, to outright censorship of the material from others.

I dare say that any/all of us are guilty of willfu... (show quote)

You make some excellent points. So if you think you can tell f**e news from real news when you see it take this quiz (the link is at the bottom of this article). We see what we want to see and hear what we want to hear (or do we?).
https://blog.avast.com/banish-f**e-news-think-before-you-share?utm_content=234799&utm_term=97423873_164_18&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sfmc&utm_campaign=c_oo_paac_a_a_19q1_jj_news031

Canuckus Deploracus Loc: North of the wall

slatten49 wrote:

I dare say that any/all of us are guilty of willful ignorance to some extent or degree.

"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool."—Richard Feynman

"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."—Aldous Huxley

Willful ignorance is the state and practice of ignoring any sensory input that appears to contradict one's inner model of reality. At heart, it is almost certainly driven by confirmation bias.

Willful ignorance differs from ordinary 'ignorance' — when someone is simply unaware of something — in that willfully ignorant people are fully aware of facts, resources and sources, but refuse to acknowledge them. Indeed, calling someone 'ignorant' shouldn’t really be a pejorative, but intentional and willful ignorance is an entirely different matter. In practice though, the word 'ignorance' has often come to mean 'willful ignorance', and indeed, in many non-English languages, the word based on the same stem ('ignore') actually carries that meaning.

Willful ignorance is sometimes referred to as tactical stupidity.

Depending on the nature and strength of an individual's pre-existing beliefs, willful ignorance can manifest itself in different ways. The practice can entail completely disregarding established facts, evidence and/or reasonable opinions if they fail to meet one's expectations. Often the willfully ignorant will make excuses, claiming that a source is unreliable, suggesting that an experiment was flawed or asserting that an opinion is too biased. More often than not this is simple circular reasoning: “I cannot agree with that source because it is untrustworthy because it disagrees with me”.

In other slightly more extreme cases, willful ignorance can involve outright refusal to read, hear or study, in any way, anything that does not conform to the willfully ignorant person's worldview.

With regard to oneself, this can even extend to f**e locked-in syndrome with complete unresponsiveness. Or with regard to others, to outright censorship of the material from others.

I dare say that any/all of us are guilty of willfu... (show quote)

Excellent post Slatten...

I would like to point out that 'willful ignorance' can also be a defensive mechanism.... Many individuals have chosen to associate themselves with a certain community or ideology, and breaking from the perceived 'understanding' would inevitably result in alienation...
Few individuals are willing to take such a drastic action... Even if they are presented with facts that completely contradict their stances..

Would any of us?

lpnmajor Loc: Arkansas

slatten49 wrote:

I dare say that any/all of us are guilty of willful ignorance to some extent or degree.

"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool."—Richard Feynman

"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."—Aldous Huxley

Willful ignorance is the state and practice of ignoring any sensory input that appears to contradict one's inner model of reality. At heart, it is almost certainly driven by confirmation bias.

Willful ignorance differs from ordinary 'ignorance' — when someone is simply unaware of something — in that willfully ignorant people are fully aware of facts, resources and sources, but refuse to acknowledge them. Indeed, calling someone 'ignorant' shouldn’t really be a pejorative, but intentional and willful ignorance is an entirely different matter. In practice though, the word 'ignorance' has often come to mean 'willful ignorance', and indeed, in many non-English languages, the word based on the same stem ('ignore') actually carries that meaning.

Willful ignorance is sometimes referred to as tactical stupidity.

Depending on the nature and strength of an individual's pre-existing beliefs, willful ignorance can manifest itself in different ways. The practice can entail completely disregarding established facts, evidence and/or reasonable opinions if they fail to meet one's expectations. Often the willfully ignorant will make excuses, claiming that a source is unreliable, suggesting that an experiment was flawed or asserting that an opinion is too biased. More often than not this is simple circular reasoning: “I cannot agree with that source because it is untrustworthy because it disagrees with me”.

In other slightly more extreme cases, willful ignorance can involve outright refusal to read, hear or study, in any way, anything that does not conform to the willfully ignorant person's worldview.

With regard to oneself, this can even extend to f**e locked-in syndrome with complete unresponsiveness. Or with regard to others, to outright censorship of the material from others.

I dare say that any/all of us are guilty of willfu... (show quote)

This an extremely contagious malady, that has already reached p******c proportions. Fortunately, there is a v*****e for it, but, well..............those who suffer from the malady refuse to acknowledge it.

dtucker300 Loc: Vista, CA

slatten49 wrote:

OK...then, 8-10 B******i investigations without desired results was a prime example of "willful ignorance."

Whose desired results? Neither side got what they desired, yet, because the fat lady hasn't sung.

bylm1-Bernie

Common_Sense_Matters wrote:

Even though EVERYTHING you seem to think he did that you would claim was criminal in nature was thoroughly investigated and nothing charged already. You still hold onto that shred of hope that you will see Obama jailed even if he didn't do anything criminal.

Or, more specifically this: Even though he was thoroughly investigated and not charged.... Wait a minute, are we talking about Obama or Trump? I'm confused.