Ignorance vs Stupidity, yes there is a difference.

My distinction between Stupidity & Ignorance. Yes there is a difference.

re: Comments asking if I was feeling lonely, without friends, while trying to carry on a rational discussion with the “Global Warming Skeptics” crowd.

“Not at all, as I feel surrounded by stupid people, engaging in rational ignorance within this discussion here.”

This could just as well be applied to; racists, the Hillary “sexist” group, bigots, many within the Republican Party, “Bible Thumpers,” Big Energy supporters, or any other group who defends Ideology over Reality.

Wikipedia says,

Stupidity is distinct from irrationality because stupidity denotes an incapability or [an] unwillingness to properly consider the relevant information.

If & when I use the term “stupid” towards a person, I intend the latter meaning as more often than not, they do not lack the capacity to learn the relevant information needed to make an educated opinion, as implied by the “incapability” connotation.

Wikipedia goes on to say,

Ignorance is the condition of being uninformed or uneducated, lacking knowledge or information.

If & when I use the term “ignorance” towards a person, I deviate from this definition, in implication that the person lacks education or knowledge, either through an incapacity to learn or a disconnect from sources of information, by which case making an informed decision or opinion is impossible to achieve.

An analogy to clarify my definition would be, expecting an indigenous Indian deep within the Amazon Basin, to know that Japan exists, let alone there is something called a television.

Wikipedia further states,

Rational ignorance is a term most often found in economics, particularly public choice theory, but also used in other disciplines which study rationality and choice, including philosophy (epistemology) and game theory.

Ignorance about an issue is said to be “rational” when the cost of [expense of energy required to] educating oneself about the issue [derivate from one's Ideology] sufficiently to make an informed decision [understand all sides or 'facts'] can outweigh any potential benefit one could reasonably expect to gain from that decision, and so it would be irrational [against one's closed minded beliefs] to waste time doing so. This has consequences for the quality of decisions made by large numbers of people, such as general elections, where the probability of any one vote changing the outcome is very small.

“Rational Ignorance,” for which I never knew a term existed to convey the sentiments of my beliefs, is the equivalent of Ideology over Reality, and I have no patience for this type of arrogant opinion used to convey “absolute truth.”

The best analogy that comes to mind is my father answering my questions about something going wrong, say for instance, the slumping economy, and him stating as fact & “absolute truth,” “Clinton got blow jobs in the White House.” True, but how does this defend you point, and you know it has nothing to do with what is causing X, Y or Z. In this example, I know he is an intelligent man, but his Ideology is blinding him from Reality, and thus I can say my father is “stupid” man without insulting him personally.

In conclusion, I have zero tolerance for stupidity & rational ignorance. As they have no moral qualm and lack integrity within themselves, I have zero guilt for “playing” at their level or insulting their statements of “Absolute Truth.”