Elim, I'm going to say this as clearly as I know how, here's all I've got (please read):
You're NOT dumb for not knowing who Ghandi is. It's suprising that you have never in your life heard of
Mahatma Ghandi. This is a world figure. A great man. Arguably one of the greatest leaders ever. You not knowing who he is demonstrates a lack of knowledge on your part of Ghandi. You're in the 10th grade, I'd be willing to bet you've heard of him, and just don't remember. It's like not knowing who Mother Theresa is. Even if you don't know she was an Albanian nun, you've probably heard of her name.
That said, you need to understand the difference between being an idiot, and being ignorant. I am not an idiot (others may debate that), but I am ignorant of many things. Ignorance = a lack of knowledge. If you ask me a question, and I don't know the answer, I am ignorant of that fact. You were ignorant, but not dumb, or stupid, or idiotic. What made you an idiot was how you responded and the complete lack of intelligence your argument demonstrated. Like the whole "of course I don't know, I'm not from India" thing, that you apparently said to I'malive. That's stupidity at its finest, the idea that nothing else in the world should matter to you.
Come on AFO, that, my God, that's just horrible. History is for noobs? Who was it that said those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it? Human beings are so advanced because we share our knowledge among our species. Our knowledge doesn't die with each individual, it is passed on to future generations for their use. It's very, very important to know what's going on in the world and in the past. I hope elim's xenophobia is not really the Texas Christian stereotype playing out, as someone suggested.
And then, instead of looking up who Ghandi was and going "wow, how did I not know this happened?" you stubbornly defended your "right" to be ignorant. Instead of shutting the f*ck up and educating yourself, you told everyone else why you weren't an idiot for not knowing it. You're on a forum filled with well-educated, intelligent people from across the globe. You can't possibly expect not to learn something while you're here.
"There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
