The ignorant fail to detect the ignorance of other ignorant people.

 In cartoons, there are clearly absurd scenes designed for children, such as this: the main character hides in some bushes to escape an enemy chasing them. But instead of fully getting behind the bushes or covering themselves completely, the character mockingly drapes a few leaves around their body from the neck down in a halfhearted disguise. When the enemy looks their way, they pass by because the character is motionless and “green,” mistaking them for a “bush,” allowing the character to escape. This also exists widely in daily life; it is not something that sprang from an imaginary world but has seeped into ordinary reality as well. The enemy character who cannot distinguish the character from a shrub can be a perfect allegory for any person whose thinking and feeling have become mechanical and flat. Even a person’s tone of voice alone may be enough to understand what kind of person they are, yet these robotic beings have let their minds rust for so long that the only filter through which they interpret events is habit. Forget noticing the subtle detail in a voice; because they grew up within society and have become accustomed to its shape, they do not even perceive it. Their overly social minds do not register it, seeing it merely as background noise. The ignorant fail to detect the ignorance of other ignorant people for precisely this reason, and just like the character in the cartoon, they see someone who is clearly a figure as nothing more than a collection of branches and leaves. They don’t even mind that the person’s skin shows between the leaves or that their head is sticking out entirely, because their minds have been carved out by the very relationships that bind them to humanity, leaving them without the sensitivity required to notice detail.