4 ms·
Ask HN: Is Stupidity the Same as Evil?
- ofalkaed 3y agoIf it is everyone is evil. We all exhibit stupidity at times.
- BMc2020 3y agoNo but they are often seen together.
- OhNoNotAgain_99 3y ago[dead]
- throwaway295729 3y agoNo because intelligence is not the same as morality
- kylebenzle 3y agoI personally moralize intelligence, it's why I ask this question. For me, I don't care if you hurt someone on purpose or out of stupidity, I will treat you the same.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- ksec 3y agoStupidity is the same as evil if you judge by the results. Stupidity is the worst form of evil. Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. You can probably find the above quote from different places. There are plenty of materials and philosophy on the subject matter. Dietrich Bonhoeffer may be the more modern one. But some can be traced back to ancient Greek. As with everything philosophy, there isn't always a concrete, scientific, right or wrong answer. And different age group, which related to different stage of life in experience may also have different answers. The word of stupidity and evil or malice may also have subtle difference depending on context which makes discussions of the subject matter even more difficult.
- sethammons 3y agoCan nature be evil? An evil earthquake or evil meteor that kills thousands or causes mass extinction? No. Results don't dictate if something is evil. Intention does. Results merely affect the scope. Similar, a person who goes into a diabetic fit while driving and crashes into a group of people is not the same as the person who chooses to plow into the same group of pedestrians because they don't like their political signs.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- theGeatZhopa 3y agoEvil needs an evil plan and stupid is to stupid to do it. Stupid can be evil, though. But still, it needs a planing capacity of the stupid brain. For example, stupid switches off the electricity of a local hospital as revenge for firing him. Done a stupid thing. It's evil because a lot of people could get problems. Vs. Evil gets fired and make an evil plan to destroy his ex employer. After weeks of planning, the electricity had been switched off. That's my logical and philosophical approach.
- vvendigo 3y agoChaotic evil, maybe.
- EvanAnderson 3y agoA subset of stupid is evil. There's also a very dangerous class of stupid that's couched in good intentions.
- edent 3y agoIs a noun the same as an adjective?
- kylebenzle 3y agoI (and MANY others) argue they are the same because most "evil" people think they are doing the right thing, so are all evil people just stupid, and since they are stupid they can not be evil?
- beardyw 3y agoNot at all. Evil requires that the perpetrator understand that what they are doing is wrong. So stupidity mitigates against evil. The law properly applied punishes those who understand their wrongdoing more than those who do not.
- wmlive 3y agoVery recommendable read in this context: https://archive.org/details/1922-08-15-00-carlo-m.-cipolla-00 https://archive.org/details/1922-08-15-00-carlo-m.-cipolla-0...
- aristofun 3y agoStupid people are tools employed by evil people.
- kylebenzle 3y agoI think you are talking about my ex wife and her lawyers :)
- revskill 3y agoEvil is intentional. Stupidity is exceptional. They're not the same, but could be comparable, depending on context.