Don't laugh at ignorance when the question is sincere.

Two examples come to mind that cast an especially bright light on this:

1. Radio...
When I was first getting into ham radio and learning what it all was about, I watched videos from trade shows and hobbyists. One trade show series was from Icom (if I recall correctly), which is a big player in amateur radio. In this video, a pretty correspondent went from booth to booth interviewing radio hobbyists and reps.

In one segment, an expert was telling the correspondent about a lady who had bought a ham radio as a gift. It was a dual bander, but it only had one knob for changing frequencies. She wanted to know where the other knob was. He laughed, as in, "how could you be so dumb?"

Everyone is new to everything once. I now have a limited understanding of amateur radio, but I remember the day when I watched that video and didn't know what the heck a dual bander was, and I would have liked to know. He could just as easily have been laughing at me.[1]


2. Religion...
A Catholic radio show host said he's been getting questions on who the new pope is going to be. He laughed it off and said "How should I know?" as in (but not stated directly), Why are you asking me?

But the folks asking thought he might know. Not because they're stupid, but because they don't have the understanding the radio host does about how the pope selection process works. This was an opportunity to talk about a timely topic and not laugh.[2]


73,
--KD8OSB

c0

[1]
A dual bander in amateur radio is able to receive and transmit on two bands; 2 meters and 70 centimeters are commonly paired this way.

Sarcasm seems to pervade "manly" activities that involve electricity, oil, moving parts, loud noises, etc, of the sort you encounter in hardware stores, auto shops, electronics outlets, and yes, back in the day, radio stores. (And there used to be lots of radio stores; you have to look for them now; there's one in Cleveland I drive very near on the way to Pennsylvania - AES (Amateur Electronic Supply) on Euclid Avenue; one day I'll be stopping there on a trip home).

[2]
I'm a former educator. This falls in to the same category as "There are no dumb questions."

(Not paying attention is a different matter; I'm not talking about that.)

c0

Started: 2013-02-18