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Bonhoeffer‘s Theory of Stupidity

Sprouts · 4.7M views · 2021-10-15 · 5:28

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Overview

An animated Sprouts video presenting Dietrich Bonhoeffer's argument that stupidity is more dangerous than evil, because reason cannot reach stupid people. It frames stupidity as a social and moral phenomenon.

On Hacker News

HN commenters cite it when discussing Bonhoeffer's idea that stupidity is a moral failing rather than an intellectual one.

Recommended by 1 HN people across 1 months · HN mentions 2021–2026

Topics

Philosophy & ethicsPsychology & human behavior
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bonhoefferstupidityphilosophyethicssprouts

What people said

ljosifov · 2025-03 · Recommendation

IDK whether you know it, but in case you don't—you articulated Cippola's definition "stupid is one causing harm to others while not deriving any gain, even taking a small personal loss" above. If you are interested further, I encourage you to check his pamphlet "The Basic Laws Of Human Stupidity". (is "book" too big word for it?) I must say I got a lot out of it and it's followups. It became much easier for me to understand the world around me, what is happening. And even predict what's to happen sometimes. What you observe with Trump admin: 1) it's stupidity; 2) it's not low IQ or lack of rationality; 3) it's lack of morals, not caring about good/bad, or even considering good what the rest consider bad (and vice versa); 4) it's social more than individual, it's a "mind virus". (ha!-Musk) Bonhoeffer‘s "Theory of Stupidity" [VIDEO] (bad morals not low IQ, mind virus social more than individual) Sabine Hossenfelder "Collective Stupidity -- How Can We Avoid It?" [LINK] (more cases, much more analytical, only about the group aspect not individual)

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infamouscow · 2026-07 · Reference

Derision is the appropriate solution to this problem. If someone accuses you of using AI because you used multiplication instead of addition to count how many eggs you have in three egg cartons, you'd dismiss such a person as stupid and move on.[1] In that vain, if someone accuses me of using AI because of em-dashes, replying with something condescending like "I'm sorry your education was so poor, but some of us can and do read books" does wonders. The punishment of social embarrassment is entirely warranted, especially when the accuser has already done that to you. 1: [VIDEO]

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infamouscow · 2024-04 · Reference

> Nobody cares ... It's a shame you can't hear how pathetic you sound in your idealogical prison / echo chamber. The price of energy would become unaffordable for all of Europe and spike across the globe. The additional pressure would create additional conflict and suffering for everyone. I'm struggling to find any reason other than blind hatred for your genuinely stupid and brain dead position. [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by Sprouts, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

HN summaries and labels may contain AI errors. HN dates refer to discussions, not video publication.

HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

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