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The week's question
In March 2025, in the thread "Re: OT, out", Umm asked the members: "Do you think it is because America is made up of magical soil that makes businesses based in America magically profitable?" This week it is put to everyone again. The button below opens the small thread re-asking it - read what others have said so far, then give your own answer as an ordinary reply.
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Author: very stable genius ✶  😊 😞
Number: of 86261 
Subject: Bonhoeffer's Theory of Stupidity
Date: 07/20/23 10:24 AM
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No. of Recommendations: 10
Isn't it interesting how history repeats itself?

Bonhoeffer's Theory of Stupidity
How Trump Rose to Power...

"That which the fascists hate, above all else, is intelligence." ~Miguel de Unamuno

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (theologian, philosopher and anti-Nazi dissident) argued that stupidity is worse than evil because stupidity can be manipulated and used by evil.

"Because evil people find it hard to take power, they need stupid people to do their work.
Like sheep in a field, a stupid person can be guided, steered, and manipulated to do any number of things.
Evil is a puppet master, and it loves nothing so much as the mindless puppets who enable them."

"Slogans, catchwords and the like take possession of the stupid person. (MAGA, Build That Wall, Lock Her Up!)
He is under a spell, blinded, misused, and abused in his very being.
Reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one's prejudgment simply need not be believed
and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. (Rape? What rape?)
In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self-satisfied and, being easily irritated,
becomes dangerous by going on the attack." (January 6th)

bigthink.com - Bonhoeffers theory stupidity evil

YouTube: Bonhoeffer‘s Theory of Stupidity (Sprouts)

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This community has written 86,214 posts about US Policy. The article-length ones it recommended most:
It's going to get worse · 33 recs · 2025
G’day Donny · 30 recs · 2026
Old Related Story · 28 recs · 2026
HCR is a national treasure · 27 recs · 2025
Fascism in America · 27 recs · 2025
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