The difference between ignorant and stupid

Two stories came together, reminding me of a third story, and the importance of education.

Ignorance is a lack of good information. Stupidity is ignoring good information. Education can cure ignorance, I’m not so sure about stupidity, which can be willful and deliberate. People who believe the 2020 election was stolen, for instance, or those who believe men can give birth. 

Of the current stories, the first is about the young netizens who fell under the spell of a 10-year-old video issued by al-Qaeda mass murder mastermind Osama bin Laden. The second is Dr. Jamina Clay, a Philadelphia School District assistant superintendent, and a Colonial school board member, who had made a Facebook post referring to Israel’s army as a “terrorist organization” which was employing “genocide,” both terms being lies, and possibly anti-Semitic.

Clay took down the original post, replaced it with an apology, and resigned from her seat on the Colonial board. She remains with the Philly school district, which said her opinion was protected free speech, and I’m OK with that.

The negative heavy reaction to her first post educated her as to how hurtful her words were. She was invited to meet with a Jewish group to further her education and sensitivity. I hope she accepts the offer.

The members of the Osama bin Laden fan club — the ones who clicked “like,” or expressed agreement with his lies, are desperately ignorant.

They are young, for starters. I’ll bet almost all are under 30. Remember way back, when some said, “Don’t trust anyone over 30?” It was the ‘60s. It was a thing. Are we heading toward don’t trust anyone under 30?

Many in the bin Laden fan club weren’t alive to witness 9/11. They also have not been taught critical thinking, and a wariness about what you see on the internet.

There’s a meme that says, “Abraham Lincoln said you can’t believe half the things you see on the internet.”

They probably believe Lincoln said that.

This brings me to the third person, who I will not name.

She was a friend of mine at the Philadelphia Daily News, where she was a news reporter, and gorgeous, not that that matters. 

This was late 1973, or early 1974, because we were discussing the Yom Kippur war as we drank wine and played Casino, the card game, in my apartment.

Around her neck she wore a piece of jewelry, a pendent in the shape of the continent of Africa.

Although the Black Power movement had emerged a few years earlier, she was not a revolutionary, although she was a proud Black woman.

She had nothing against Israel, she said, but she didn’t like the idea  they were in Africa (where white people did not belong, she did not say, but was thinking).

Even then, radical Blacks sang the song of grudges against Israel as, well, Europeans, and colonialists.

“Israel is not in Africa,” I said.

Sure, it is, she said. 

There were no cell phones, no internet.

I excused myself, walked to the bookshelf. I pulled down a world atlas and put it down in front of her.

“Open it to Africa.”

She took a sip of red wine and opened the heavy book.

When she got to Africa, she turned the book to vertical, because the map took up two pages. 

She started looking. After about 15 seconds, she looked at me.

“Find Egypt, which attacked Israel,” I said. “It’s the next-door neighbor.”

She found Egypt easily, then looked puzzled. “Where’s Israel?” 

It’s almost like she thought I was tricking her.

I took the atlas and turned to Asia Minor, where Israel is located. 

“There it is.”

She just nodded, as she processed new information. Something she deeply believed was proved to be untrue.

She was by no means dumb. She was a college graduate, and an experienced reporter. She was just ignorant of the facts, had made assumptions that were not true. She was not stupid.

Dr. Clay is not stupid, just ignorant of the facts.

I don’t know her, but in her case there may be a political overlay that will make accepting new facts difficult. If she can’t, she’s stupid.

And with the Osama bin Laden fan club, they now are hearing — and seeing — a lot of information about bin Laden and his plans for Islamist global conquest. He hated Western civilization.

If they are capable of understanding reality, each of us should be patient, and try to educate them. 

If that doesn’t work, we will just have to kill them.