Irked by Stupidity or Ignorance?

This is a rant, don't read it! I'm just posting to let out steam.

While I'm quite happy about the aid for wolves generated by my element wolves series, I'm also quite irked by a number of questionable comments.

I've always believed that ignorance is the lack of knowledge while stupidity is the lack of ability to process knowledge, but in these cases, I'm not quite sure which is which.

1. First several people have "corrected" my Chinese that was part of my wolf drawings. Many Chinese characters were incorporated into other languages such as Japanese and Korean through out history. Understandably some people thought I was misusing Japanese or Korean. I have no problem with simple misunderstandings.

However, one person insisted that my Chinese was wrong and that I didn't even know how to write my own name because I used simplified Chinese. I was born in mainland China and I was taught simplified Chinese like the other 1 billion people in China. This person was from Taiwan and grew up learning traditional Chinese. So we have slightly different versions of Chinese, no big deal, right? Well, according to this person, I'm wrong no matter what because simplified Chinese was a result of the Communists trying to erase Chinese culture, and by using simplified Chinese, I'm like a Nazi because I use simplified like most Chinese people, just like the Nazi who all agreed to kill Jews. What? If that didn't make any sense to you, then you are perfectly fine.

2. I think it's quite obvious that I drew the wolf series to promote wolf rescue. The recent wolf delisting has already resulted in the untimely death of over 69 wolves; I think I have a right to be angry about that and I should also have the right to do something about. Apparently, several people believe I don't have that right because I'm just another stereotypical wolf lover who only cares about the cute and furry animals. I find it ridiculous that just because I'm trying to help one species, people would bash me for not helping another? Hello? I'm not stealing aid from other animals to give to the wolves and just because I'm helping the wolves now doesn't mean I have never helped, or never will help any other species of animals.

This happens every time. When I wrote about kids in Iraq, people bashed me about not talking about other kinds in 3rd world countries. When I drew "Selfish" to bring light to the 50,000 dog slaughter, people bashed me for caring ONLY about some dogs and not other animals. When I was angry about the puppy thrown off a cliff, people bashed me for caring about just ONE puppy. What, I have no right to be angry that a puppy died because it was JUST ONE puppy? And now people are telling me off because I ONLY care about wolves instead of lesser known animals. I'm ONE person and I can only do ONE thing at a time so just because I'm helping wolves right now doesn't mean I won't help other species. I thought this was a fairly obvious fact but after reading so many comments about the same irrational crap, I felt the need to to rant it out.

3. I'm not some dumb artist who can only draw and fail in academics.  Not to brag but the fact that I'm valedictorian probably means I'm not as dumb as what some might think. This is why it irks me when people who have done zero research and have zero knowledge in ecology lecture me on how "wolves need to be killed because they are overpopulating, killing off all the prey, and will come into the city to eat people." Anyone who is not completely uneducated will know how false a statement like that is. At first I found it hilarious, but then I just found it sad. It's partly because of people like this that innocent animals are being killed for no real reason.

4. This has nothing to do with the wolves but it irked me on an equal level. I'm an atheist, so what? But I've received several comments that went something along the lines of this "I think you're cool and we like all the same things, we could be good friend, but you're an atheist/ but I'm afraid of atheists."

What? Seriously, I thought we lived in modern society, not the witch hunt era. My best friend is Christian, my entire family is Christian, my college roommate is Christian and we all get along fine. I'm just as good as any of them. My mom was angry when I first became an atheist because she thought that without my fear of hell for doing wrong or incentive of heaven for doing good, that I would stray from the right path. Is that why some religious people are afraid of atheists? Are they afraid that I'm someone without moral standard because I don't believe some divine being is watching my every move? I won't go into details on why I became an atheist but I can assure all religious people out there that it's not so that I can do whatever I want without fear of punishment. There's no need to be afraid of me because I'm not going to stab you just because I believe I won't go to hell if I did.

I'll end my rant here. Sorry if you actually read all this. My deepest apologies for my incapabilities to tolerate inevitable stupidity and ignorance.