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Order Jamie Glazov’s new book, ‘United in Hate: The Left’s Romance with Tyranny, Terror, and Hamas’: HERE.
“Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than evil.”
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer’s insight remains one of the most unsettling diagnoses of moral collapse ever written—not because it flatters our intelligence, but because it strips away comforting illusions. Evil, he observed, can be confronted. It can be named, resisted, punished. Stupidity, by contrast, is immune to argument. Facts bounce off it. Evidence is dismissed as irrelevant. Moral reasoning fails not because it is weak, but because it is no longer being received.
Bonhoeffer did not mean stupidity as a lack of intelligence. He meant something far more dangerous: the voluntary surrender of independent judgment to an ideology, movement, or collective identity. The stupid person, in his formulation, is not incapable of thinking—but has stopped thinking. He no longer acts as an individual moral agent. He functions as an instrument.
That distinction matters now more than ever.
Across the United States, protests against federal immigration enforcement have escalated from demonstrations into intimidation campaigns—disrupting religious services, harassing officers, vandalizing property, and in some cases openly encouraging violence against federal agents enforcing the law. The justification is always the same: moral righteousness, historical analogy, emotional urgency. And yet the facts—legal authority, due process, crime statistics, constitutional limits—are waved away as beside the point.
This is Bonhoeffer’s stupidity at work.
One of the defining features of ideological stupidity is its joyfulness. Evil often appears dour and grim in our imagination, but in reality it frequently presents itself as exuberant, righteous, even celebratory. Once responsibility is dissolved into a collective—“the movement,” “the cause,” “history”—guilt evaporates. The individual no longer bears moral weight. He obeys. And obedience feels liberating.
That is why crowds can chant with glee while calling for harm. That is why activists can smile while threatening federal officers. That is why vandalism is rebranded as “resistance” and intimidation as “speech.” The participants do not experience themselves as committing wrongdoing. They experience themselves as morally elevated.
Bonhoeffer warned that once a person has been made stupid in this way, “every attempt to reason with him becomes senseless and dangerous.” Dangerous, because the challenge is no longer to an argument, but to an identity. When facts threaten the belief system, the system must be defended at all costs. Doubt becomes treason.
This explains a phenomenon many Americans now encounter daily: the refusal to engage with evidence. You can present crime data showing declining murder rates following enforcement actions. You can cite statutory authority granting federal agencies the power to remove those unlawfully present. You can point to court rulings affirming these powers. None of it matters. The response is not rebuttal, but moral outrage.
Why? Because the ideology cannot survive contact with reality.
A particularly corrosive lie embedded in this environment is the claim that “protest” itself is a constitutional right without limit. It is not. The First Amendment protects the right to peaceably assemble—not to riot, not to threaten, not to obstruct lawful activity, and certainly not to incite violence. The distinction is not semantic; it is foundational. A society that erases it abandons the rule of law.
Yet the ideological framework colonizing these protests treats law as illegitimate by definition. Enforcement becomes “fascism.” Borders become “violence.” Officers become “Nazis.” Language is deliberately debased so that no legitimate authority can exist. Once everything is tyranny, nothing is.
This is moral inversion in its most practical form.
Bonhoeffer understood that totalitarian movements do not begin by demanding crimes. They begin by demanding submission. “Stop thinking,” they whisper. “Stop questioning. Stop weighing evidence. Trust the cause.” The price of belonging is intellectual surrender. In exchange, one receives certainty, camaraderie, and the intoxicating feeling of righteousness.
The individual disappears. The herd advances.
What makes this form of stupidity especially dangerous is that it cannot recognize itself. The stupid person believes he is independent, brave, even rebellious. In reality, he is entirely predictable. He uses the same slogans, the same historical distortions, the same moral shortcuts as everyone else in the movement. You are not speaking to a person anymore; you are speaking to a system.
George Smiley, in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, offers a devastating observation about fanatics: beneath their absolute certainty lies a suppressed doubt. Bonhoeffer would agree. The fanatic’s aggression often masks fragility. He senses—dimly—that if one question is allowed in, the entire structure collapses. So he doubles down. He shouts. He attacks. Not because you are wrong, but because you are dangerously close to being right.
This dynamic explains why enforcement of federal law provokes such disproportionate rage. Law is not merely an obstacle; it is a rebuke. It insists that reality exists outside ideology. That facts matter. That individual responsibility cannot be dissolved into slogans. For those who have surrendered their moral agency, this is intolerable.
Bonhoeffer’s bleak conclusion was that stupidity is not cured by education, intelligence, or debate. It is cured only when individuals are restored to responsibility—when they are forced, by circumstance or conscience, to act as moral agents again. Liberation, not persuasion, is the antidote.
That insight should sober us. A society that tolerates the systematic erosion of individual judgment in favor of ideological obedience does not drift into danger accidentally. It chooses it. Slowly, joyfully, and with applause.
Evil rarely needs to conquer a free people. It only needs them to stop thinking.
Aaron J. Shuster is a writer, commentator, and cinematist focusing on moral philosophy, political culture, and the ethical foundations of Western civilization. His work examines the intersection of ideology, individual responsibility, and historical memory.
Too bad we don’t have people concerned with fighting back. This could be extremely useful in formulating who and how to target people, especially various groups they have split off.
When Protests erupt into Violence that’s not a Right or act of Civil Disobedience its a Crime and those who commit it belong in prison not teaching their Anocracy to the Youth
This Bonhoeffer tripe is silly. It probably got him tenure and a cushy seat at the table.
These people are the nerds ostracized at puberty. The group of socialists accepts all comers because they need numbers. Independent thought etcetera is not allowed and quick repartee is supplied regardless of validity. Repetition is good because it solidifies its’ source and the foot soldiers are desperate for a groups’ acceptance.
A “whiff of grapeshot”, Kent State and Tehran show that this situation is easily controlled. “when all is said and done, there is a lot more said than done.”
“This Bonhoeffer tripe is silly. It probably got him tenure and a cushy seat at the table”
He was a German pastor who was describing what was happening in Nazi Germany. He was executed for his anti-Nazi beliefs and efforts. He was 39 years old.
Never got tenure or a cushy seat anywhere.
Not on THIS Earth he didn’t, but you can betcha he’s got a plush position in Heaven now!!
Thank you for calling the Madame above on her stupidity.
Santa thank you for rectifying-He had an astute analytical mind to identify the exact psy-ops assassination and method they use to target their victims and society. Since Hitler was an uber liberal communist, it is likely to be no different today than it was then. If you want to fix something, you have to define what it is that needs to be fixed. In this case it could be as easy as getting people to understand the trick they are using and why submission to them can’t be allowed at any level. Pastor Bonhoeffer was able to break things down and understand the real problems. Few, throughout history, are smart enough to offer this insight.
Your Quote,” This Bonhoeffer tripe is silly. It probably got him tenure and a cushy seat at the table..
You are so wrong in so many ways, why don’t to get educated ?? Or is that too much trouble ?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer ; 4 February 1906 – 9 April 1945) was a German Lutheran pastor, neo-orthodox theologian and anti-Nazi dissident who was a key founding member of the Confessing Church. His writings on Christianity’s role in the secular world have become widely influential; his 1937 book The Cost of Discipleship is described as a modern classic.[1] Apart from his theological writings, Bonhoeffer was known for his staunch resistance to the Nazi dictatorship, including vocal opposition to Nazi euthanasia program and genocidal persecution of Jews.[2] He was arrested in April 1943 by the Gestapo and imprisoned at Tegel Prison for a year and a half. Later, he was transferred to Flossenbürg concentration camp.
Bonhoeffer was accused of being associated with the 20 July plot to assassinate Hitler and was tried along with other accused plotters, including former members of the Abwehr (the German Military Intelligence Office). He was hanged on 9 April 1945 during the collapse of the Nazi regime.
The author lays out the eternal dilemma of civilization: There will always be war. What is truth to one faction, are lies to the other. Good and evil are relative and interchangeable according to which faction you belong. Right and wrong are simply defined by the winner. Cynical but true.
You don.t seem to be aware of Bonhoeffer’s heroism and his punishment by the Nazi regime.
What we don’t know can kill you.
I stand by my statement. There are always people anxious and waiting to raise their battle flag for some cause or another. But I caution them with the words of General Sherman: “War is Hell.”
True enough: There will always be war. But, there will always be sides to choose from. They may not always be a perfect fit, but one side will always offer an opportunity for life and improvement! For decent people
there will always be choices!
You missed the point. You should read it again.
Every Jewish prayer includes a section called the Shemoneh Esrei, and that includes a sentence thanking God for giving us “knowledge and understanding” Unfortunately this article is clear that those without knowledge also lack understanding and support Nazis, Palestinians, and terrorists, often because false facts are published in our media or simply repeated by the public. As this article clearly states, a lack of correct facts leads to the wrong and often evil thoughts and actions. By the way, Mr. Shuster wrote an excellent article.
Every Jewish prayer includes a section called the Shemoneh Esrei, and that includes a sentence thanking God for giving us “knowledge and understanding”
Didn’t know this,not Jewish, but a beautiful or at least admirable part of the religion.
Excellent article.
Americans in particular have been cultivated since the ’60’s to be followers. The once-trusted media began to mix news and entertainment, and moral censorship ended. Media presented anti-war reporting alongside celebrity psychedelic drug taking and sexual daisy-chains and communal living. “Make Love, Not War.” “If You Can’t Be With the One You Love, Honey, Love The One You’re With.” Satisfy every immediate urge, sometimes even including children. The result was often damaged brains, thinking, behavior, and AIDS, all through suggestive magazines, evening news, and peers who read/heard the same info.
That generation produced a population of children from multi-parent families grew into adults wanting to do the normal things but lacked knowledge as to what ‘normal’ was. After all, their knowledge was skewed. In support of a peaceful world, we were told (via elected leaders, church, media) to accept all behaviors without judgement. Unfortunately this usually meant suppressing opinions and outrage against bad, immoral activity. “Biased! Prejudiced! Sexist! Stuck in the mud! How dare you speak out against crime by XYZ?!”
We now have serious news alongside celebrity cleavages and political opinions, but we want to return to reality and facts. We want to keep our money that has been frivolously taken and wasted in fraudulent government programs yet still help those who truly need it. “Greedy!” We want to welcome legal immigrants who will be our productive neighbors, and want to remove those who simply entered wherever and whenever they wanted without our knowledge or permission. Did they have OUR best interests in mind? “You’re being judgmental!”
It seems there are a growing number of people who know the facts and want to stop the media-suggested chaos that is not in our best interest, yet so many non-thinkers continue to reject facts in favor of following/sharing the skewed 2-minute TV newsbites, thinking themselves to be fully informed. A serious situation indeed, but fixable if we have the determination to deal with media’s desire for conformity.
Fantastic read. This is my third time.