The British historian John Dalberg-Acton described stupidity as “a corruption of knowledge.” This may mean information or knowledge that has been distorted. But this in itself is not stupidity as such. Stupidity is allowing oneself to believe the distorted information and knowledge and then refusing to learn from their outcomes, no matter how disruptive they often tend to be.

In a 2020 essay, the philosopher Sacha Golob wrote that, on many occasions, dumbness gets mistaken for stupidity. Dumbness can be the result of having a low IQ or weak intellect. But unlike ‘dumbness’, stupidity can be found in those with ample amounts of intelligence and education. This is what the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer believed as well.

Bonhoeffer was baffled by the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime and many of its supporters. To Bonhoeffer, most Germans were not doing this out of malice but due to stupidity. Bonhoeffer was arrested for exhibiting dissent against Nazi policies. While awaiting trial in jail, he wrote a series of letters, in which he developed a “theory of stupidity.”

To Bonhoeffer, the Nazis were not stupid. They cleverly enacted an intolerant and violent state to keep themselves in power. One vital source of this power was the support they managed to attract from a large number of Germans. These not only included the gemeinsames volk [common folk], but also many intellectuals, doctors, lawyers, teachers, white-collar professionals, etc.

The stupidity of many politicians, billionaire entrepreneurs and social media activists today stems from a conceptual failure to understand and read certain circumstances. This is different from just being plain unintelligent

Therefore, Bonhoeffer posited that stupidity is........

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