know-nothingness
Proud intellectual emptiness
Know-nothingness is willful ignorance or proud anti-intellectualism—the state of aggressively not knowing and not wanting to know.
The term evokes the Know-Nothing Party of 1850s America, whose members claimed ignorance of their organization's workings.
Today it describes a broader stance of hostility toward expertise, learning, or established facts: The candidate's know-nothingness on climate science was almost a point of pride.
Lacking necessary knowledge
- uneducatedLacking formal instruction
- unawareLacking knowledge of something
- misinformedGiven incorrect facts
- unenlightenedLacking awareness or knowledge
benighted · unschooled · unlearned · illiteracy · nescience · unversed · unacquainted · incuriosity
Preference for native-born citizens
- xenophobiaHatred of outsiders
- anti-intellectualismHostility toward educated thought
- populismPolitics favoring ordinary citizens
- protectionismShielding local producers
sectarianism · anti-immigration · reactionary · jingoism · ethnocentrism · demagoguery · isolationism · chauvinism
Freedom from wrongdoing
- gullibilityEase of being deceived
- credulityUncritical acceptance of claims
- unsophisticationLack of worldly experience
- unworldlinessDetachment from material concerns
guilelessness · artlessness · ingenuousness · childlikeness · impressionability · inexperience · simplicity · wide-eyed
uninformed
Lacking necessary knowledge
- uneducatedLacking formal instruction
- unawareLacking knowledge of something
- misinformedGiven incorrect facts
unenlightened · benighted · unschooled · unlearned · illiteracy · nescience · unversed · unacquainted · incuriosity · willful ignorance
nativism
Preference for native-born citizens
- xenophobiaHatred of outsiders
- anti-intellectualismHostility toward educated thought
- populismPolitics favoring ordinary citizens
protectionism · sectarianism · anti-immigration · reactionary · jingoism · ethnocentrism · demagoguery · isolationism · chauvinism · bigotry
innocence
Freedom from wrongdoing
- gullibilityEase of being deceived
- credulityUncritical acceptance of claims
- unsophisticationLack of worldly experience
unworldliness · guilelessness · artlessness · ingenuousness · childlikeness · impressionability · inexperience · simplicity · wide-eyed · unquestioning
know-nothingnessexpertise
Skill from extensive practice
wisdom · knowledge · erudition · learnedness · scholarship
know-nothingnessinquisitiveness
Eager desire to learn
love of learning · open-mindedness · studiousness · critical thinking · truth-seeking
know, nothing, know-nothing, knows, knew, known, knowing, knowingly, unknowing