know-nothings
Proudly uninformed people
Know-nothings are people who are ignorant or anti-intellectual, especially those who seem proud of their ignorance: The know-nothings on the committee dismissed the scientific evidence.
The term comes from the Know-Nothing Party, a mid-19th-century American political movement whose members claimed to "know nothing" when asked about their secret organization.
The party was defined by nativist, anti-Catholic, and anti-immigrant positions.
Hostility toward educated thought
- willful ignorancePurposely remaining uninformed
- uninformedLacking necessary knowledge
- obstinateFirmly refusing to yield
- closed-mindedUnreceptive to new ideas
denial · flat-earthers · conspiracy theorists · misinformation · stubbornness · dunces · fools · uneducated
Preference for native-born citizens
- anti-immigrantOpposing foreign newcomers
- 1850sMid-nineteenth century decade
- xenophobiaHatred of outsiders
- anti-CatholicBiased against Roman Catholics
secret society · Protestant · election · conspiracy · lodges · oath · secrecy · naturalization
anti-intellectualism
Hostility toward educated thought
- willful ignorancePurposely remaining uninformed
- uninformedLacking necessary knowledge
- obstinateFirmly refusing to yield
closed-minded · denial · flat-earthers · conspiracy theorists · misinformation · stubbornness · dunces · fools · uneducated · backwards
nativism
Preference for native-born citizens
- anti-immigrantOpposing foreign newcomers
- 1850sMid-nineteenth century decade
- xenophobiaHatred of outsiders
anti-Catholic · secret society · Protestant · election · conspiracy · lodges · oath · secrecy · naturalization · immigration restriction
know-nothingsexperts
Highly skilled practitioners
scholars · intellectuals · savants · authorities · sages
know-nothingstruth-seekers
Those pursuing accurate knowledge
autodidacts · philosophers · open-minded · enlightened · students
know, nothing, know-nothing, knows, known, knowing, knowingly, unknown, knowledge