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Posted By Aaron Marcelli on October 14, 2010

“You’re ignorant”

As I have spent time in political and theological debates I realize that this, like playing the race card, is an easy out that appears to be the better argument to a casual observer.  I am guilty many times over of using this saying and pretty much every time I used it I really thought it was true.  What made me step back and think was when I heard someone from a theological camp I would consider ignorant, call me (or people of my beliefs) ignorant.

That’s when I realized that perhaps accusing ignorance is not as strong a point as I had thought.  Also, it is yet another cheap shot because you leave your debating opponent in no place to make a reasonable response.

I used to think that ignorance meant that a person or group did not know as much as I did.  I thought it was about information.  When observing how the argument is used today, I think it’s more about perspective.  For the most part, when someone tells another person, “you’re ignorant,” they are not saying you don’t know what I know.  They are saying you don’t see it the way I do.  So it’s actually a form of arrogance because you are saying, we both have the same information yet you see things one way and I see it another.  And because I’m me and you’re you, I’m right and you are wrong.

What can you say to that?  Nothing!

So rather than challenging the other party to study, research, and check their logic, we are just name calling in a form that insults their intelligence, therefore trying to discredit them rather than being able to make a solid argument ourselves.  If I’m called ignorant in this fashion, I have no response.  You’re right, I don’t see things the same way you do, but that does not make me stupid or wrong, it just means we see things differently, which probably explains why we are in an argument in the first place.

It’s one you can’t win.  So save yourself the stress and don’t even try.

Category: Communication, Emotion Issues
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