We have more to fear from stupid people than evil ones
- sciart0
- Jul 22
- 1 min read
Excerpt: "There’s an internet adage that goes, “Debating an idiot is like trying to play chess with a pigeon — it knocks the pieces over, craps on the board, and flies back to its flock to claim victory.”
It’s funny and astute.
It’s also deeply, depressingly worrying.
Although we’d never say so, we all have people in our lives we think of as a bit dim — not necessarily about everything, but certainly about some things.
Most of the time, we laugh this off.
After all, stupidity can be pretty funny.
When my friend asked a group of us recently what Hitler’s last name was, we laughed. When my brother learned only last month that reindeer are real animals — well, that’s funny. Good-natured ribbing about a person’s ignorance is an everyday part of life.
Stupidity, though, has its dark side.
For theologian and philosopher Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the stupid person is often more dangerous than the evil one.