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I'd reserve the word "ignorant" for the truly dangerous. Technically it's correct but it's become a de-facto insult. "You don't know" works as well and is less likely to drive a newcomer to youtube.
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And that is your choice. I use Webster's dictionary as my definitional source.
Ignorant: As in a lack of knowledge in general, or as in this context, lacking knowledge in some particular field. I'm ignorant, for example about most everything, but less ignorant about a few things. As defined, the word "ignorant" has no implied or inherent pejorative connotations, as consulting most any dictionary of the English language will reveal.
IMO only, that negative context as a mandate (in some of the same sense the word "evil" has some irrevocably negative context) that goes with the word ignorant seems to have crept in a lot of mental side doors as another convenient way for people to imagine and justify that their feelings are being hurt. But, such negativity is not automatic. To such folks, "ignorant" may well often be used (incorrectly I'd argue) in some adjectival context associated with a character flaw, or some mental handicap. The word ignorant has no physiological or emotional reference I'm aware of. It's contextual. Ignorance may (or may not) be a necessary but not sufficient condition for a bad outcome. Example: If I'm an evil person and I'm ignorant of someone else's vulnerable condition, that's probably going to lead to a better outcome for the vulnerable person based on my ignorance. In that context, that ignorance will probably lead to a better outcome, at least for the person with/in the vulnerable condition.
The truly ignorant person will be a lot more dangerous as they become more active, and tend to stay as dangerous to the degree and as long as the ignorance responsible for the potentially dangerous condition(s) persists. Assuming those ignorant folks are not evil, informing the ignorant with the hope and some assumption their new found knowledge will increase the probability that their behavior will change and become less dangerous, either potentially or actually, seems a good thing.
Besides, I'm not sure writing "you don't know (something- whatever)", instead of "you are ignorant of (something)" for example, will staunch the flow to the idiots' bible, or the rush of the mouth breathing, knuckle draggers to the least common denominator we all seem to be headed for. But I guess that to depends on context. To me, the use of the former phrase seems to be a bit of enabling behavior that legitimizes and accelerates in some small way our headlong and seemingly inexorable rush into mental mediocrity.Comment
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