Stupid vs Evil

The Debate Continues

Even if you’ve managed to avoid it so far, the time may come soon when you will be sucked into the cul-du-sac debate: of which is worse – Stupid or Evil?

Both sides will likely quote Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer who lived through the rise of the Nazis, ultimately tortured and executed for his outspoken opposition to Hitler and the Third Reich. Based on his tumultuous life and observations, he opined Stupid people were the worst and most dangerous mainly due to their unpredictability. Evil people were more easily recognized and could be controlled with force, if necessary.

Stupid people don’t think they’re stupid. According to Bonhoeffer, “…stupidity” isn’t defined by the trappings of ‘smartness’. There are human beings who are of remarkably agile intellect yet stupid, and others who are intellectually quite dull yet anything but stupid.”

Personally, I’ve always argued Evil was the worst. While Bonhoeffer may have been correct about the dangers of unidentifiable, unpredictable Stupid people, that doesn’t categorically condemn them to someday doing something surprisingly evil. Stupid people also tend to be stupendously ignorant of significant events around them which ultimately leads to apathy. And they’ll pay the price for that, one way or another.

We may agree that Evil people are more easily recognizable and, therefore, controllable, but who is going to do the ‘controlling’? The ignorance and apathy of the Stupid passively permits Evil to be evil, to grow, multiply and accomplish their evil goals.

Nothing supports that contention more than the headlines of the last 10 years with a growing emphasis leading up to today’s current events. The general breakdown of government institutions – “militarized” in popular parlance – is the most glaring example. Add the well-known affiliation with Military Industrial Complex, the newer complicity with Big Pharma, Big Tech, and the dependable distortions provided daily by the infiltrated Mainstream Media and you have the Evil that has flourished via the passive-aggressive ignorance of the Stupid. Riots, massive illegal infiltration, the COVID “pandemic” with all the lies just beginning to leak to the public through “alt. media”, and the erosion of ‘two-tiered justice’ from federal to state to local jurisdictions provides transparency onto an ugly and destructive scenario sweeping America.

Bearing in mind the memorable line from Forest Gump “Stupid is as stupid does”, this is the work of Evil and Stupid is doing nothing to stop it.

Are there enough people neither Evil nor Stupid to change that?  

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