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> "A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses."
by AnimalMuppet 3y ago
> "A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses."
I think this comes down to motivation. Are they causing losses to other people just because they didn't think, or miscalculated? That's being stupid.
Or are they causing losses to other people because of spite? That is, they may not gain in any material way, but they may gain in satisfaction. That's being evil.
- philwelch 3y agoI think it’s relative to your own value system. If a man dies rescuing his family from a house fire, that’s a loss for him in some sense but in that man’s own value system, it’s a win because he values his family’s lives over his own. The word “spite” implies a certain pettiness that usually indicates that you don’t actually value satisfying the grudge more than what you’re losing so you’re just being stupid. My mom always used to say, “don’t cut off your nose to spite your face”. But if you brood and premeditate on a resentment until you wholeheartedly accept it and are still willing to make personal sacrifices to satisfy it, that’s less “spite” and more “revenge”, and it becomes evil.