>>If one is too lazy to apply their own intelligence, how does that make them NOT stupid?
>
>It makes them ignorant. Stupid is unable to learn. Ignorant is able to learn but having not learned.
>Thus, those who refuse to learn may well be able to, they just won’t. That leaves them uninformed
>and, hence, ignorant, yes?
I disagree. You see their unwillingness to learn means that they are unable to learn (very rarely does one learn against one’s will, but that is not saying one cannot learn from bad experiences); so, by their own choice to embrace unwillingness to learn and laziness, they have made themselves unable to learn: hence stupid.
Now, it is possible to be both intelligent and ignorant. For example, I’m a CS major, I enjoy listening to music, but I could not tell you what alto, contralto and all the rest are (except bass, that’s the low one), which makes me ignorant on the technicalities of music.
I don’t give the 0bama voters the benefit of the doubt for being ignorant,
because even if they are ignorant, it is wilful ignorance.
You are strectching the meaning of the words to make them fit, IMHO. Not sure what the purpose is, so I’m not going to pursue the matter further. After all, I’m not Mr. English-Usage-Authority. What I use words for is what I have read them used for. If I use them otherwise, I tend to make it clear that I am doing so. I find the word ‘ignorant’ to properly classify the intentionally ignorant and to distinguish them from the ‘stupid’, who don’t know better and possibly can’t be taught to know better. The latter I might well try to help avoid catastrophe. The former I will let dangle on the rope they have gone and fetched for themselves.
In any case, those who are being wilfully blind about all this are not going to be somehow preserved from the effects. They might even be hurt far more than you and I. After all, you and I are quite aware of what can happen and that bad social, economic and political effects are highly likely to happen, given the present course and declared intentions. So, we’ll come out damaged but generally okay. They might well get run over. Not pretty. Not what anyone deserves, but justice sometimes means that those who refuse to look both ways crossing streets get put in hospital. If the case is sufficiently pitiful, perhaps they might merit a visit to commisserate.