Hanlon's Razor:

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

i was just thinking about this today, or maybe it was yesterday, that this is a fallacy.

stupidity is a form of evil. unconscious evil. usually caused by brainwashing.

the definition of stupid needs to be noted:

adjective

stupider, stupidest

lacking ordinary quickness and keenness of mind; slow-witted.

- characterized by or proceeding from mental dullness; foolish; senseless.

Sorry for asking a stupid question, but why is the answer four instead of five?

- tediously boring, especially due to lack of meaning or sense; inane; pointless.

He wished he'd never come to such a stupid party.

- annoying or irritating; troublesome.

Turn off that stupid radio.

- in a state of stupor; stupefied.

After a twelve-hour work day, she was stupid from fatigue.

the clear theme of all of these definitions relates to the root of the word, which means in a diminished state of consciousness, but not asleep or otherwise unconscious.

when the cause of stupor is a drug, it is called "intoxication"

toxic means poisonous, so a person who is intoxicated, and in a stupor, has been poisoned.

stupidity IS evil, which has been caused by someone other than the person acting stupid, in most cases. but not always. my point here is that stupidity is a diminished state of consciousness, and anyone who is doing stupid things is low key being evil. they aren't conscious of it, but they ARE being evil. they are doing things that are causing harm. this is what a malicious action is - causing harm.

the word malice, itself, does not strictly specify intent. thus, this razor is bullshit. the actions that get described as stupidity cause harm, and malicious actions cause harm.

if you ask me, it's cut and dried. whether the evil is from intoxication, from misunderstanding (which may be caused by brain damage or brainwashing), or ignorance (which really means denying something in front of your face, which is also malicious) it's still evil.

Malice is a correct base concept in all cases that the word stupidity relates to.

the thing that Hanlon was most likely referring to was either retardation or brainwashing. you can forgive the former, but it is relatively rare, maybe 1-2% of the population is certifiably retarded. the latter, has a hidden hand behind it, where the malice is hiding.