I wish I could upvote this 1000 times. I am ignorant of a lot of things but I’m willing to learn and even change my mind. Willful ignorance when someone chooses not to know something, even though the information is available, relevant to them, and often even presented directly to them but they plug their ears and go “la la la”.
Then you obviously have a completely different understanding of ignorance than I do. By that I mean someone who doesn’t want to know anything about a subject, or even someone who deliberately insists on their opinion against their better judgment.
So my understanding of ignorance is what you mean by willful ignorance. However, this may be because the term is defined differently in my native language (German): what you mention first is called “Unwissen” (not knowing) in German.
I’m leaving the post up anyway, because “Unwissen” is also a very significant problem, even though I actually meant deliberate ignorance in the sense of what is currently happening so prominently in the US.
– Me
I wish I could upvote this 1000 times. I am ignorant of a lot of things but I’m willing to learn and even change my mind. Willful ignorance when someone chooses not to know something, even though the information is available, relevant to them, and often even presented directly to them but they plug their ears and go “la la la”.
Then you obviously have a completely different understanding of ignorance than I do. By that I mean someone who doesn’t want to know anything about a subject, or even someone who deliberately insists on their opinion against their better judgment.
So my understanding of ignorance is what you mean by willful ignorance. However, this may be because the term is defined differently in my native language (German): what you mention first is called “Unwissen” (not knowing) in German.
Yes, what you’re describing is what’s called “willful ignorance” here.
“Ignorance” is used to mean simply “lack of knowledge” in most cases in English. It doesn’t carry the negative connotation by itself.
I’m leaving the post up anyway, because “Unwissen” is also a very significant problem, even though I actually meant deliberate ignorance in the sense of what is currently happening so prominently in the US.
Post title works as-is, at least IMO. You can always edit it if you want.
You are correct.
It is actually ignore-ance, with the removal of the e at the end of Ignore to form a new word…
To ignore something is a willful action of deliberate inattention.