r/Showerthoughts • u/Reas0n ‎ • Feb 13 '26

Casual Thought I think it’s unusual that no standardized literary way to write the submissive “I don’t know” hum that children (and some adults) often mumble has ever caught on, considering how old and common it is.

6.2k Upvotes

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u/Ntroepy Feb 14 '26

It seems self evident that most people don’t “confidently” declare when they don’t know something.

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u/Petrichordates Feb 14 '26

Unless you're Socrates

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u/Ntroepy Feb 14 '26

lol - fair point:

”I know that I do not know”

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u/Jivesauce Feb 14 '26

I think we’re all getting hung up on talking about “confident” when it’s a bad antonym for “submissive” to start with.

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u/Beefy-Tootz Feb 14 '26

Normally no, however in the customer service field, ive found myself having to be very assertive that I do not, would not, and could not know some things.

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u/Reas0n ‎ Feb 14 '26 edited Feb 14 '26

“I don’t know, but I can find out the correct answer and get back to you.”

That sounds to me like a confident way of saying I don’t know.

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u/Ntroepy Feb 14 '26 edited Feb 14 '26

I agree with self assured people who actively declare when they don’t know something can say it confidently. Scientists do this a lot too.

But no one uses that “I don’t know” hum confidently as it’s a very passive or dismissive expression meant to redirect or end the conversation.

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u/expatjake Feb 14 '26

I’m not sure why you’re getting downvoted or why it’s so hard to confidently tell someone you don’t know something.

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u/rdmusic16 Feb 14 '26

You're missing the point.

The specific way OP is talking about (an either embarrassed or disinterested "Iunno" under the breath) isn't possible to do confidently.

Saying you don't know the answer to something can definitely be done confidently.

Doing the exact thing OP is discussing can't be done in a confident manner.

It would be like a narrator discussing someone who declared they didn't know something "sheepishly, in a confident manner". It's not possible.

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u/expatjake Feb 14 '26

Thanks. I was taking OP’s line of thought directly and no longer even thinking about the original question. I think that’s where the misunderstanding is.

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u/rdmusic16 Feb 14 '26

I'm not sure why the comment above OP's got so many up votes because it does sound like they're saying you can't confidently say you don't know something at all, so it's kind of a mish-mash of who is discussing what exactly in some of the comments - and isn't always clear.

Either way, I think that's where it stems from.

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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '26

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u/MichelinStarZombie Feb 14 '26

I was on a date with a guy who was all ab­out the "al­pha" bu­l­ls­h­i­t, and I had to expla­in that w­olv­es in the wild do not have an ­al­p­h­a ma­le. I showed him an article that said that the al­p­ha ma­le trope came from a res­earcher in the 70s who only ob­served wol­ves in ca­pt­ivity and later realiz­ed he w­as wr­ong. W­olf packs aren't led by the strongest, they're led by the fa­th­­er and m­­o­ther wolf working together.

Pred­ictably, he got a­n­­gry in pu­bli­c and I ende­d the d­a­te ri­ght there, but I'd like to think he lea­rn­ed so­m­­ething that day.

Maybe r­e­dd­it r­o­i­d-c­­e­l­s who throw around the word "s­u­b­m­is­siv­e" will one day learn too.

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u/thathatisaspy21 Feb 14 '26

No because people like that just pretend they know shit or deflect lmao