Deliberate ignorance

Deliberate ignorance is the practice of refusing to consider or discuss logic or evidence disproving ideologically motivated positions. Examples include:

• Howard Dean, a physician, former Governor, and longtime politician, refusing to recognize that taxpayer-funded abortion increases the number of abortions
• abortionists refuse to address the undisclosed harm to the mothers who have abortions
• refusing to acknowledge the inferior credentials of the critics of Richard Sternberg, whom they ostracize for having published an intelligent design article
• Democrats refusing to acknowledge Barack Obama's appeal to unpatriotic donors and supporters
• materialists refuse to address the impossibility of material explanation for migration and homing
• evolutionists refuse to address the lack of a plausible evolutionary path for the whale and the other counterexamples to evolution.
• liberals refuse to address how socialism destroys productivity
• Advocates of the global warming theory refuse to consider any scientific evidence which shows that natural causes have always had a greater effect on terrestrial air temperature than human activity.
• Liberal cafeteria Christians refuse to consider Bible verses that contradict their preconceived notions of what the Bible should say.
• Liberal Internet discussion boards quickly delete posts that present facts contradicting liberal ideology and ban users making such posts.
• Liberals commonly refuse to acknowledge the crushing debts that accompany illegal immigration.
• Liberals refuse to acknowledge the negative health effects of homosexuality.
• Liberals almost never acknowledge the negative side effects of tobacco, drug, and alcohol use.
• Liberals praise communism as being somehow “viable”, but they adamantly refuse to hear that communism has lead to the unjustified deaths of millions.
• Liberals always take into the account the feelings of heinous criminals when it comes to capital punishment, but totally ignore the fact that unborn children can feel pain.
• Liberals ignore Obama’s utter unwillingness to deal with the Gulf of Mexico oil spill but will attack George W. Bush for anything he says or does. A general law regarding Obama is that if it is something that Bush would be endlessly chastised for, Obama will fly under the radar every time for it.
• Liberals are quick to jump at qualities of creationism that they feel are asinine, but completely refuse to believe that anything at all is ridiculous about monkeys transforming into humans (evolution).
• Liberals never acknowledge the obvious racist implications of evolution in general.

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Common expressions of deliberate ignorance include:

• "I find that hard to believe!" (Howard Dean, June 11, 2008, in response to a fact ignored by liberals)
• "I'm not aware of that!" (without admitting a failure to look)
• "I've never seen that in the New York Times!"
• "That's not what it said in my (public school) textbook!"
• "Let's talk about something else!"
• "I'm not interested in that!"
• "They hate us for our freedom!"
• "Complete suspension of disbelief!"
• "That offends me!" (used as an excuse not to consider facts or logic)
• “My professor tells me something different!” (professor values)
• “Your argument is unconventional and therefore erroneous!” (used as an excuse to ignore strong arguments, usually in an informal debate setting)

Crime of Deliberate Ignorance

Deliberate ignorance can be a crime. For example, jurors were instructed "to consider whether ... former Enron Corp. executives deliberately ignored accounting fraud as the energy trader fell into bankruptcy."