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Hanlon's Razor
- jfengel 6y agoHanlon's Razor is widely applicable, but it can also be used against you. Malice does exist, and malicious people can appeal to Hanlon's Razor to divert attention. It's especially effective in the presence of propaganda. Stupidity is indeed widespread, and a malicious appeal to stupidity is very difficult to combat. The many stupid people will reinforce the propaganda for each other, and Hanlon's razor can be tacitly used to deny the existence of a malicious source. So I don't always draw as broad a distinction between malice and stupidity as the razor implies. If your stupidity harms me, and you will not cease harming me, I'm going to have to treat you as if you were malicious rather than merely stupid. This puts a big onus on me: it's entirely possible that I am, myself, being stupid. It's fiendishly difficult to prove otherwise. But at a certain point I have to weigh the harm to myself against my own best judgment, since ultimately that observation is all that I've got.