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Thursday, October 01, 2026

(Theory of Stupidity)

Why do smart, educated people often give up their own judgment? Three weeks before his execution in 1943, pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a chilling breakdown of human psychology from a Nazi prison cell:

"Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice."

In this video, we unpack Bonhoeffer's Theory of Stupidity"explaining why evil has limits, why facts cannot cure a closed mind, and how group identity forces good people to stop thinking for themselves.

(less than 5 mins, animated/with Transcript)

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from the Comments:

""The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. To be your own man is hard business. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself."
- Rudyard Kipling

"You're entitled to your own opinion, but you're not entitled to your own facts."

- Daniel Patrick Moynihan

#1 | Posted by Corky at 2026-10-01 11:50 AM | Reply

Ten years of normalizing Trump will do that.

#2 | Posted by ClownShack at 2026-10-01 11:54 AM | Reply

facts cannot cure a closed mind

Just ask anyone who has ever tried to speak rationally to our resident trolls.

#3 | Posted by ClownShack at 2026-10-01 11:55 AM | Reply

To be fair, the Dumbing Down of America has been a 50 year project of the Republican Party that started with, "The tax cuts for the wealthy will Trickle Down!"...

... and continued with Planned Recessions, underfunded edumacation, expensive bad healthcare, Money as Speech, Corporate Personhood, and legalized political bribery and Forever Wars.

So, they've werked long and hard for the resulting Trump voters.

#4 | Posted by Corky at 2026-10-01 12:03 PM | Reply

Why evil looks normal today?

"Eichmann in Jerusalem: The Banality of Evil" by Hannah Arendt is an informative read.

#5 | Posted by ExpectingReign at 2026-10-01 10:24 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

Bloom's gone of off the Arendt rose for me, as correspondence has shown she was pretty good at explaining away the Nazi sympathies of her mentor and lover Martin Heidegger.

Her writing is brilliant. It's even more intriguing in light of personal history.

www.goethe.de

Not in German.

#6 | Posted by Dbt2 at 2026-10-02 01:47 PM | Reply

Yep...don't make no sense.

When the general populace caught wind of Nixon's activities, the proverbial {feces} hit the fan.

Today? The same crap would have rethuglicans doing endless victory laps.

These people suck.

#7 | Posted by Angrydad at 2026-10-02 02:33 PM | Reply

This is what evil looks like ...

#8 | Posted by oneironaut at 2026-10-02 02:50 PM | Reply

This is what evil looks like ...

How so? A can exploded in a trash fire.

#9 | Posted by REDIAL at 2026-10-02 03:14 PM | Reply

#8 | Posted by oneironskull

This is what unfettered stupidity looks like.

#10 | Posted by Angrydad at 2026-10-02 05:41 PM | Reply

This is what unfettered stupidity looks like.

He really is just phoning it in these days.

#11 | Posted by REDIAL at 2026-10-02 06:01 PM | Reply

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