Ignorance Isn't Bliss for The Rest Of Us

A friend of ours posted this link today on facebook and the article really got us talking about ignorance and the frustrating behavior we sometimes deal with today. The editorial is humorous and well written but a little bit sad because it's so very true.
Why is it more and more common to encounter people who have never learned to debate like an adult but choose to settle arguments like most pre-schoolers? We're sorry, but the "I know you are but what am I" style of arguing is just not appealing, and it will never persuade us.
Columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. originally wrote a piece which "mentioned Henry Johnson, who was awarded the French Croix de Guerre in World War I for single-handedly fighting off a company of Germans ... who threatened to overrun his post."
A reader named Ken Thompson commented "Hate to tell you that blacks were not allowed into combat intell (sic) 1947, that fact. World War II ended in 1945. So all that feel good, one black man killing two dozen Nazi, is just that, PC bull."
At this point, Pitts's assistant responds to the reader with factual information to back up the claim, he argues further. Clearly the guy has a problem with recognizing this African American soldier and his contribution in WWI, we may even go so far as to say he's racist. His final argument is "It is what it is, you don't believe either ... " Really?! That's the best you can do? To tell me that I really don't believe what I'm saying? Wow. Well I'm sorry for you because clearly you're functioning in life with a shortage of intelligence and that's got to be difficult.
The problem is that this head-in-the-sand attitude is more and more common! People refuse to see the truth presented to them. We love what Pitts says in his column:

"...increasingly, we are a people estranged from critical thinking, divorced from logic, alienated from even objective truth. We admit no ideas that do not confirm us, hear no voices that do not echo us, sift out all information that does not validate what we wish to believe."

To Ken Thompson - Learn the difference between fact and opinion. A fact is what happened. An opinion is what you think of it. You can care as little as you want about Henry Johnson. That doesn't change what he did. Ignorance may be bliss for you, but it's annoying as hell to the rest of us.

-Flora