It's an interesting point you bring up - that of ignorance
   shrinking.
   Even among the "willfully ignorant" [my in-laws revel in their
   ignorance. They KNOW better but _choose_ ignorance as a sort of
   noble badge of "cool-ness") - THEY TOO, are less ignorant even
   as they pretend to be.

   It can be hard to see it sometimes; in online debates (which are
   commonplace) someone may _appear_ to be dumb and yet, they're on
   a computer. They're communicating. They're expressing opinions -
   in short, the person who _appears_ ignorant about 'everything' -
   is no different than the person who 'appears open and
   intelligent' because:

   They're communicating on a common platform, which requires
   implicitly, less ignorance.

   So, I'm rarely fooled by someone who appears to be ignorant
   online. They're not ignorant. They're just expressing their
   opinions that have the veil of ignorance.

   In short, you gotta be smart to appear dumb in a smart
   environment.