This is what it’s come to?

According to urbandictionary.com willful ignorance is defined as, “The practice or act of intentional and blatant avoidance, disregard or disagreement with facts, empirical evidence and well-founded arguments’ because they oppose or contradict your own existing personal beliefs.” Why then are people so committed to taking the willful ignorance stance on subjects that clearly make them look, well ignorant? From the dawn of my existence this has puzzled and perplexed me. I remember asking my mom about liars and “why would people lie?” I never understood people’s commitment to being ignorant and lying falls into this category because both parties involved both know that the truth is absent and yet one party cannot seem to relinquish the falsehood.

I see so many people especially Hip-Hop fans outright lie and feign ignorance of the truth about hotbed topics. The newest topic of discussion is the validity and credibility of Troy Ave. After his rather embarrassingly comical Power 105.1 “Breakfast Club” interview. In the interview Troy Ave recounts the moments surrounding his most resent attempt on his life. Troy states that while the would be assassin attempted to shoot him he called out to the gunman, “you ain’t no killer!” For the record I have never and nor do I ever plan on being on either side of a gun in a life or death situation, but I know for sure I would not scream out to someone who is trying to kill me “you ain’t no killer!” How is this even remotely believable? Like seriously who would really taunt someone who is trying to kill them by basically in no unclear terms doubting their prowess as a taker of human lives? What is even more unbelievable is the hundreds of “fans” who “believe” Troy’s story!

Rapper and political activist, Mysonne pointed out the contradictions in Troy’s story and the obviously scripted retelling of the events surrounding him being shot in a series of Instagram video posts. As I am reading the comments there were to my surprise numerous accounts not only championing Troy’s revisionist account of his own shooting, but also people were calling Mysonne a “hater.” How is Mysonne hating for stating the obvious? The likelihood of Troy Ave screaming to someone who he knows is actively in real time trying to assassinate him, “you ain’t no killer” is so slim that anyone with a modicum of intelligence can see the obvious fallacies in his statement. This brings me back to my original point which is how can people be willfully ignorant? The game is so twisted now that people who have logical arguments and make logical inferences about illogical situations and statements are considered “haters.” I believe that the truth no matter how far removed they are from it being affected by it is too much for some folks to endure.

In order to like Troy Ave as an artist fans have to agree with him and all of his actions and statements in order to justify their initial support of him. Giving credence to anything that seems contradictory to the person they supported would cause them to feel uneasy. Rather than sit in these feelings and investigate the reasons behind the discomfort, they opt to blatantly disregard the facts at hand. Picking and choosing facts and when said facts are in discordance with the lie we are choosing to believe, the complete disregarding of anything remotely logical. I guess this is what it’s comes to. The cognitive dissonance is real!