The Rise of Stupidity
And the Death of Critical Thinking
Intelligence invents, wisdom warns, and stupidity destroys.
Stupid Is As Stupid Does
When we look at our achievements as a species, intelligence is at the height of progress, but history isn’t just full of brilliance. It’s chock-full of failures caused by blind faith, poor decisions, and the inability to recognize mistakes. In one word: Stupidity.
While intelligence drives innovation, discovery, and advancement, stupidity through blind obedience, misinformation, and recklessness has often started wars and led to economic collapses and societal failures. Some of history's biggest catastrophes weren't brought on by evil masterminds but rather by well-meaning, thoughtless individuals who failed to question their actions.
A Greater Threat to Society
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German theologian and an anti-Nazi dissident who formulated his theory of stupidity while imprisoned by the Gestapo in 1943. While observing the rise of Nazi Germany, he came to a stark realization: stupidity is a greater threat to society than evil. Bonhoeffer didn't define stupidity as a lack of intelligence. He saw it as a condition of the mind losing its ability to think critically and reason independently. To Bonhoeffer, stupidity wasn't something we were born with, but rather something we fall into through social or psychological pressures or external forces.
Bonhoeffer believed that power and stupidity are deeply connected. The more power someone has, the more likely they are to think less critically while surrounding themselves with yes-people who won’t challenge them. This leads to an organization full of blind arrogance and poor decisions. Those in power are also inclined to weaponize stupidity, using propaganda, misinformation, and emotional rhetoric to keep people from questioning them. A cycle where the powerful become dumber, and the masses become more obedient.
Stupidity In History
The Vietnam War (1955-1975) – A Refusal to Accept Reality
U.S. officials convinced themselves that communism was a “domino effect” and escalated involvement.
Military leaders knew the war was unwinnable but kept sending troops anyway.
Political pressure made leaders fear admitting mistakes more than continuing failure.
Lesson: Stupidity fueled by ideological blindness, sunk-cost fallacy, and refusal to reassess strategy prolonged suffering.
The Collective and The Propagation of Stupid
While intelligence can be regarded as an individual trait, stupidity thrives in groups. This takes stupidity beyond being an individual problem and allows dangerous ideas to spread unchecked. An intelligent person processes information critically, evaluates the facts, and can evolve their thinking when presented with new information. Take that same individual and put them in a collective, whether political, an institution, or a mob, and their ability to think independently diminishes. Bonhoeffer's main theory was that stupidity isn't a psychological problem; it's a sociological one.
Stupidity has nothing to do with intelligence and everything to do with the willingness to surrender our independent thought to a group. It's when a person is more concerned with belonging than seeing the truth. It's a form of tribalism where conformity overrides judgement while accepting absurd, destructive, immoral, or even dangerous ideas without questioning.
Stupid Is More Dangerous Than Evil
Evil is intentional. Evil is aware of what it's doing. Stupidity does not. A malicious person can still be reasoned with, even deterred. Stupid people act with conviction and can not be swayed even when facts are presented to them. It's quite the opposite: The more facts you present, the stronger their belief becomes. History shows that stupidity doesn't just allow evil to happen; it enables it.
Stupid is dangerous because it doesn’t need a motive. While evil has a plan, a goal, or an agenda, stupidity only needs to abandon critical thought. It spreads by feeding tribalism and emotional reactions. While evil is capable of lying, stupidity doesn’t need lies—only blind belief. People will accept, repeat, and reinforce bad ideas without questioning them. That’s why history’s greatest atrocities weren’t carried out by villains but by ordinary people who simply followed along.
Stupidity In History
Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster (1986) – Reckless Compliance
Soviet engineers conducted a test on Reactor 4 despite knowing the risks.
They disabled safety mechanisms, assuming nothing could go wrong.
The reactor became unstable, and the operators panicked, which made everything worse.
Lesson: Stupidity rooted in blind rule-following, ignoring risk, and misplaced trust in authority caused the worst nuclear accident in history.
Breeding Stupid
When someone’s certainty leaves no room for curiosity, stupidity takes hold. The moment someone believes they have nothing left to learn, they stop thinking critically. They become convinced of their brilliance and lose the self-awareness to recognize when they might be wrong. It's more than ignorance; it's a shift in perception, reasoning, and convictions.
Once they find their tribe, they stop questioning and outsource their knowledge to the collective. They accept whatever they're told without hesitation. Maybe it's the comfort of belonging, the thrill of feeling right, or the fear of standing alone. But once stupidity takes root, reasoning won’t fix it because logic doesn’t work on someone who’s convinced they already have all the answers..
If intelligence is the ability to think, then wisdom is the ability to resist stupidity.
The Antidote
It’d be easy to say that reasoning is the cure for stupidity, but it’s not that simple. The first step is isolation from the masses because stupidity thrives in groups. Reclaiming intelligence has to be done in solitude. While working on another story, I came across the Dunning-Kruger effect (something I might write about in the future)—a cognitive bias where people with low skill or expertise overestimate their competence and ability. If stupidity is blind certainty, then the antidote is intellectual humility. We need to recognize the limits of our knowledge and stay curious. Resisting stupidity means being willing to stand apart, even when it’s easier to go along with the crowd.
We're All Stupid... Sometimes
Stupidity isn't just other people. It's within all of us. I used to wonder how highly intelligent people fall for cults. Now I know. We're all susceptible to passively absorbing beliefs while failing to question them, especially if we share those beliefs within a group. The goal is never to feel superior. It’s to catch ourselves when we stop being curious, stop questioning, and start thinking more like them.
Bonhoeffer's warning remains poignant: Ignorance can be fixed. Stupidity is chosen, and the moment we stop questioning, we become part of the problem.
How to Avoid Being Stupid
Stupidity is something we’re all capable of falling into. The key is self-awareness and intellectual humility. Here are a few ways to avoid the trap of stupidity:
Stay Curious.
If you think you know everything, you’ve already stopped learning. The smartest people ask the most questions.
Beware of Certainty.
If something feels too obvious or too true to question, that’s your cue to question it. Absolute certainty kills critical thinking.
Fact-check yourself.
Before believing or sharing something, check multiple reliable sources. Don’t assume your first instinct is correct.
Be Comfortable Saying 'I Don’t Know.'
Ignorance is fixable, but pretending to know something you don’t only makes you dumber.
Think in Nuance, Not Black and White.
If your beliefs are all-or-nothing, you might be stuck in tribal thinking rather than actual reasoning.
Listen More Than You Speak.
The less you assume you know, the more you can learn. Intelligence is about absorbing, not just broadcasting.
Surround Yourself With People Who Challenge You.
If everyone around you agrees with everything you say, you’re in an echo chamber. That’s not a space for growth.
Don’t Confuse Confidence With Competence.
Loud, assertive voices aren’t always the most knowledgeable. Watch for substance, not volume.
Know When to Walk Away.
Some people enjoy being stupid—arguing with them is a waste of time and energy. Learn to let it go.
Never Stop Learning.
The moment you think you’ve “figured it all out” is the moment stupidity takes hold. Keep reading, questioning, and growing.
I hate paywalls as much as you do, and nothing kills curiosity faster than a great headline you can’t read. I understand content creators need to make a living, but I want to do things differently. For now, The Devil’s Playbook will remain free because reaching people matters more than gating content.
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🔍 Further reading:
Wikipedia—Dietrich Bonhoeffer
An overview of Dietrich Bonhoeffer | READ
Psychology Today—Why Do Smart People Fall For Stupid Ideas?
People might trust ideas based on who shares them, not their actual validity. | READ
I don't know who said this, but I often remind myself of it, "the smartest person in the room can still be wrong."