Know-Nothings

Cultural  

1. A party opposed to the holding of public office by immigrants or Roman Catholics. The Know-Nothings, also known as “nativists,” insisted that only true, “native” Americans should serve in the government. The party was quite successful in the 1850s but split over the slavery question. Its official name was the American party. It picked up the “Know-Nothing” tag because its members, maintaining secrecy about the party's activities, customarily answered questions with, “I know nothing.”

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Today, the term know-nothing is usually applied to bigots.

Example Sentences

Though Greenpeace was scrappy and underfunded, the crew of the Rainbow Warrior wasn’t a bunch of hippie know-nothings.

From Slate

If you believe this, no wonder you might conclude that, ominously, a society of know-nothings and those with a newfound disdain for thought will produce only a few who can be counted as wise — despite society’s pressing need for wise humans to guide, counsel and direct us.

From Washington Post

That created multiple political factions within the Democratic and Republican parties, like the Northern Whigs, Southern Whigs and the Know-Nothings, with slavery even creating internal divides within those very factions.

From Slate

By the late 1850s, because he had been claimed by the Know-Nothings for their own, Brother Jonathan was no longer a viable national symbol.

From Slate

But those eager to exploit the virus's resurgence – the know-nothings, Trump wannabe's, vilely ambitious political upstarts, Tucker Carlsons and similarly cynical entertainers – are already howling about "personal freedom" threatened by "socialism."

From Salon