MetaFilter posts tagged with Ignorance

You're gonna want that Tru-Coat -- and we'll also throw in this anti-Obama billboard

porn in the woods — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 11:39:15 -0800

An automobile dealership in Wheat Ridge, Colorado made the decision last Friday to post a billboard which asks if President Obama is a terrorist and if he's really an American citizen by birth. Part of the sign also references the recent tragedy at Fort Hood. The brainchild of Phil Wolf, owner of Wolf Interstate Leasing and Sales, the sign depicts a Bamboozled-esque rendition of the PUSA, with and without a turban. Protestors have gathered to display their dislike of the billboard, which even the shop's proprieter admits "may be a little scattered. It says several things. It brings us several questions and I think they got to be answered (sic)."

UK retailer website betrays the little children / ignorance

NinjaTadpole — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 03:00:37 -0800

Buying a new bed for your daughter?. How about this little number, with a cheeky, precocious, contemporary culture-aware name. And pull-out desk, did I mention the built-in cupboard?
Mothers aren't concerned about the pull-out desk; they're concerned about the young girls' bed being called "Lolita". A spokesman for the company, Woolworths, told the Times "What seems to have happened is the staff who run the website had never heard of Lolita, and to be honest no one else here had either. We had to look it up on Wikipedia. But we certainly know who she is now." The item has now been removed from the Woolworths site, the fate of the spokesman is undisclosed.

If you like it so much why don't you go live there?

hnnrs — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 07:27:58 -0800

Scary and amusing in equal measure, If you like it so much why don't you go live there? is a compendium of bigoted opinions, idiocisms and zenophobic remarks posted on the BBC's Have Your Say site. Also

Not The Grey Variety

chuckdarwin — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 03:23:25 -0800

100 of the World's Worst Invasive Alien Species

Yezidi woman stoned to death in "honour killing"

homunculus — Fri, 04 May 2007 23:13:32 -0800

A teenage girl was stoned to death for loving the wrong boy. Du’a Khalil Aswad, a 17-year old Yezidi girl who lived in Northern Iraq, fell in love with a Sunni Muslim boy, and possibly converted to Islam. For this she was stoned to death in a public "honour killing" which was recorded on video and spread on the internet (warning: graphic and disturbing. YouTube took theirs down.) 23 Yezidis have been killed in retaliation. [Via Disinformation.]

A No Go for Homos

three blind mice — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 01:20:39 -0800

We hold that the New York Constitution does not compel recognition of marriages between members of the same sex. By a 4 to 2 margin, the New York Court of Appeals, New York's highest court, upheld (70 page pdf) the state's Domestic Relations law that bars same-sex couples from getting married in New York and denying same-sex couples the hundreds of family protections provided to married couples. The court accepted the justifications advanced by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Attorney General Eliot Spitzer for the state law barring marriage by same-sex couples. "Pointing out that stable relationships between parents are important for children, that straight couples can conceive children by 'accident,' and that gay couples can only have children with advance planning, Bloomberg and Spitzer argued that straight couples need the stability of marriage, but gay couples do not." The ruling was denounced by the ACLU, criticized by Howard Dean as based on "outdated and bigoted notions about families," and applauded by the Marriage Law Foundation pleased by the "superb and straightforward legal analysis." Background from NPR.

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amberglow — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 21:40:16 -0800

Eighth grader Anthony Soltero shot himself on Thursday, March 30, after the assistant principal at De Anza Middle School told him that he was going to prison for three years because of his involvement as an organizer of the April 28 school walk-outs to protest the anti-immigrant legislation in Washington. The vice principal also forbade Anthony from attending graduation activities and threatened to fine his mother for Anthony's truancy and participation in the student protests." Anthony was learning about the importance of civic duties and rights in his eighth grade class. Ironically, he died because the vice principal at his school threatened him for speaking out and exercising those rights," ...

"No, where are you really from?" "Screw off."

cybercoitus interruptus — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 09:57:42 -0800

"STRANGER: 'Do you mind my asking where you are from?' [This is code for 'What is your race?'] "ME: 'Canada.' [This is code for 'Screw off.']" Sometimes, "Where are you from?" means what it says. Sometimes it doesn't.

reporters are teh dumb when it comes to religion. o rly? yes rly. no wai! yes wai!

tweak — Sat, 28 Jan 2006 23:29:49 -0800

Are reporters too stupid to Get Religion? Answering the question that had to be asked, via the interesting GetReligion blog.

"remember the shopping season, to keep it holy..."

all-seeing eye dog — Fri, 09 Dec 2005 11:04:58 -0800

Liberal conspiracy to take away school children's right to sing cherished Christmas song... ...Or simple misunderstanding? Another hard-hitting battlefield report from the frontlines of the Culture Wars, from the same stalwart news organization who brought us John Stossel's seminal treatise on the hidden virtues of greed. (Yes, both links are to a mainstream news outlet, but this story's an exclusive, so there aren't any alternatives.)

Found something cool on the web and want to share it with everyone else

thirteenkiller — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 17:23:41 -0800

Peruse The Geographical Reader for Dixie Children and contemplate the manner in which the greater body of man has improved his intellect these past seven-score years and two.

More lies from Wall Street?

all-seeing eye dog — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 10:20:17 -0800

Who can you trust if you can't trust the Wall Street Journal? RealClimate debunks the latest junk science on climate change from the pages of the Wall Street Journal.

Clueless About History

Coop — Mon, 05 Apr 2004 09:13:16 -0800

Clueless about History Britain is a nation of history dunces with many even believing Adolf Hitler never existed, according to a new survey. A quarter of those interviewed were not sure if the Battle of Trafalgar was a real historic event, while one in seven did not know the Battle of Hastings really took place. Sadly, it gets worse. Apparently the Battle of Endor actually happened in some people's minds.

shoplifters of the world

the fire you left me — Thu, 13 Nov 2003 12:00:15 -0800

Jeb Bush, comedian. "It looks like the people of San Francisco are an endangered species, which may not be a bad thing. That's probably good news for the country."

dack — Fri, 21 Jun 2002 09:28:20 -0800

College Students Speak Out, and just 14% can identify the president of Pakistan, 37% would likely try to evade the draft, and 71% "do not believe American values are superior to the values of other nations." Is your local college breeding ignorant anti-Americanists?

patrickje — Tue, 18 Jun 2002 13:32:25 -0800

Is scientific illiteracy a problem in America? Take the quiz, how do you measure up? Sample question asked (with response)
Q: "Where would you find chlorophyll?"
A: "Probably in your toilet."

Dirjy — Fri, 14 Jun 2002 10:50:33 -0800

"Islam was founded by Muhammad, a demon-possessed pedophile who had 12 wives..."
The Rev. Jerry Vines slams Islam while speaking to delegates at the Southern Baptist Convention this week. The group's newly-elected president, the Rev. Jack Graham, refused to denounce the comments since "his statement is actually a statement that can be confirmed." Hmmm... since when is 'demon-possessed' an emperical statement?

Anyone want to guess what the reaction would be if a Muslim leader denounced Jesus with this much venom?

Postroad — Wed, 27 Feb 2002 11:01:23 -0800

Poll: Muslims call U.S. 'ruthless, arrogant' Do we nuke 'em, give them money so they will like us, tell them to fight their own wars and governments without us, plead for understanding. Or just say: What, Me Worry? Whatever.

geronimo_rex — Mon, 15 Oct 2001 12:19:10 -0800

Operation: Enduring Homophobia

fpatrick — Mon, 24 Sep 2001 05:38:25 -0800

Isolationist information and international ignorance -- Whenever I visited my sister in Hong Kong over the past five years, I was always impressed with how much I didn't know about what was going on in the world. This link is a commentary on the feedback to an interview with a CNN Afganistan correspondent who said something similar, and got lambasted for it. Maybe if something good comes out of 9/11, it'll be a shift from celebrity news to real news. Ignorance can be dangerous.

rushmc — Mon, 25 Jun 2001 12:54:59 -0800

A hero for the 21st century. Brilliant or just possessed of plain ol' common sense? In today's world, perhaps having the latter qualifies someone for the former adjective. One has to admire a relatively high profile person who doesn't shy away from telling the truth despite the pressures to hedge and equivocate.

adnan — Mon, 28 May 2001 21:52:24 -0800

USA's new popular export: Their ignorance. A comedian who specializes in political and cultural satire, Mercer's most popular schtick is "Talking to Americans" -- a "Candid Camera"-esque routine in which he travels the United States asking people ridiculous questions to exploit their ignorance about their northern neighbor.

Shadowkeeper — Fri, 27 Apr 2001 10:20:11 -0800

The Flintsons: Based on a True Story According to a recent survey, half the adults surveyed didn't know that the Earth revolves around the sun, and 42 percent said they thought early humans lived side by side with dinosaurs. Seems like we hear about some survey of this nature every year ("87% of high school children can't find the US on a map of the US!"), although this article at least has a citation. I couldn't find any mention of said survey on the CAoS website. (Although if you take a look at their masthead, you can see why some people may be confused about scientific issues, as it seems to show fish revolving around the DinoWorld ...)

Mr. skullhead — Mon, 17 Jul 2000 15:13:07 -0800

We're all a bunch of ignorami. Hooray! Hurrah! It's bliss!