Why Stupidity Is More Dangerous Than Evil: Bonhoeffer’s Warning in the Age of Misinformation

Friday, March 7, 2025.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian who tried to kill Hitler and got executed for it, left us with a terrifying idea: stupidity is a greater threat to humanity than evil.

It sounds absurd. Surely, genocidal dictators, war criminals, serial sex offenders, and sociopathic chainsaw-wielding billionaires are the real problem?

Not exactly.

Evil, as horrifying as it is, requires effort.

It has to plan, manipulate, and strategize.

But stupidity? Stupidity doesn’t need to do anything. It just exists. And because it exists, evil thrives.

Stupidity is not a lack of intelligence. It’s a lack of moral courage.

It is what happens when people stop thinking for themselves and surrender their minds to the mob.

It is passive, cowardly compliance disguised as loyalty and common sense. And worst of all? Stupid people don’t know they’re stupid.

That’s why stupidity is not only more dangerous than evil—it’s evil’s most powerful weapon.

Who Was Bonhoeffer, and Why Did He Care About Stupidity?

Bonhoeffer was not a philosopher locked away in an ivory tower. He was a man who faced real evil and paid for it with his life.

Born in 1906 into a privileged German family, Bonhoeffer could have lived a comfortable life. Instead, he chose resistance.

He was one of the first public intellectuals to denounce Hitler, helped Jews escape Germany, and even joined a conspiracy to assassinate the Führer.

Stupidity is More Dangerous Than Evil: Bonhoeffer’s Chilling Warning for the Modern World

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian who tried to take down Hitler and got a one-way ticket to the gallows for it, came to a disturbing conclusion while sitting in prison:

Stupidity is more dangerous than evil.

At first, that sounds ridiculous. Evil commits atrocities. Evil wages war. Evil builds gas chambers and concentration camps.

But here’s the thing: evil can be stopped. You can put a bullet in its head. You can throw it in prison. You can put it on trial at The Hague. Evil is at least aware of what it’s doing—it has an agenda, it has motives, it makes plans.

Stupidity, however, is immune to logic, resistant to facts, and completely unaware of itself.

It’s worse than evil because evil depends on it. Hitler wasn’t marching people to their deaths all by himself—millions of stupid, obedient people helped him do it.

Bonhoeffer realized something terrifying: the people who carry out evil aren’t necessarily evil themselves. Most of them think they’re the good guys. And that’s what makes stupidity the most dangerous force in the world.

Who Was Dietrich Bonhoeffer? And Why Should You Care?

Bonhoeffer was born in 1906, earned a doctorate in theology at the age of 21 (show-off), and spent most of his career arguing that Christianity should mean something other than just showing up to church and singing badly.

Then Hitler came along, and most German Christians did what people tend to do when things get hard: absolutely nothing.

Not Bonhoeffer. He called Hitler out in 1933, helped form an underground church to resist Nazi ideology, and eventually joined a plot to assassinate Hitler.

Bonhoeffer was arrested, imprisoned for two years, and executed just weeks before Germany surrendered. Because irony is a cruel mistress.

But before he died, he left us with one of the most horrifyingly accurate insights into human nature ever written.

Evil: At Least It Knows What It’s Doing

Evil is goal-oriented. It wants power. It wants money. It wants control. And it will manipulate, lie, and kill to get it.

Think of the greatest evildoers in history. Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, that one HOA president who fines you $200 for having your garbage cans out five minutes too long. They all knew what they were doing. They were ruthless, cruel, and calculating.

But evil isn’t the reason the world falls apart.

Evil needs armies. It needs employees. It needs voters. And those people? Most of them aren’t evil. They’re just… incredibly, dangerously stupid.

Why Stupidity is Worse Than Evil

Stupidity is Socially Contagious.

Bonhoeffer noticed that people don’t become stupid on their own. They become stupid when they join a group.

You take a normal, decent person, stick them in a crowd, give them a uniform, or make them part of a movement, and suddenly, they’ll do things they’d never do alone.

“Under the overwhelming impact of rising power, human beings are deprived of their inner independence, and, more or less consciously, give up establishing an autonomous position.” (Letters and Papers from Prison, 1951)

Translation? Once people join a cause, they stop thinking.

Ever wonder why mobs are terrifying? Or why conspiracy theories spread faster than facts? Or why seemingly normal people go online and type the dumbest things imaginable with absolute confidence?

Because stupidity thrives in groups.

Stupidity is Immune to Facts

Evil at least acknowledges reality—it just twists it for its own benefit.

Stupidity? It doesn’t even process reality.

"A stupid person will remain stubborn. If facts contradict their prejudices, they simply do not believe them. Instead, they consider them trivial or reject them outright as dangerous propaganda." (Letters and Papers from Prison, 1951)

You can’t reason with stupidity. You can’t debate it. The more evidence you present, the more it digs in.

That’s why fact-checking doesn’t work. That’s why people believe the dumbest lies with absolute conviction.

That’s why arguing with stupid people is like wrestling a pig in the mud—eventually, you realize the pig likes it.

Stupidity is Passive, but That’s What Makes It So Deadly

Evil does things. Evil makes decisions. Evil wants things.

Stupidity? It just goes along with whatever is easiest.

That’s why atrocities don’t happen because of a few evil masterminds. They happen because of thousands—millions—of people who just “follow orders.”

The Holocaust wasn’t carried out by monsters—it was carried out by clerks, train conductors, and middle managers.

Jim Crow laws weren’t enforced by a handful of racists—they were enforced by millions of people who didn’t question the rules.

Every dystopian nightmare in history? Always carried out by regular people who thought they were doing the right thing.

And that’s what makes stupidity so horrifying: it doesn’t think it’s stupid. It thinks it’s virtuous. It thinks it’s logical. It thinks it’s doing the right thing.

Stupidity Gives Evil a Free Pass

Evil doesn’t need to be smart—it just needs stupid people to obey.

Want to spread propaganda? Stupid people will share it for free.

Want to enforce bad laws? Stupid people will do it enthusiastically.

Want to turn neighbors against each other? Stupid people will show up with pitchforks.

Evil doesn’t need to win debates—it just needs enough stupid people to ignore the truth.

Can Stupidity Be Fixed?

Bonhoeffer had bad news: Can stupidity ever be fixed? No, not really.

You can’t argue with stupidity. You have to remove its power.

"The only way to overcome stupidity is through an act of liberation. Until then, we must abandon all attempts to convince the stupid person with reasoning; it is useless and even dangerous." (Letters and Papers from Prison, 1951)

The only cure for stupidity is breaking people out of their echo chambers. Helping them think for themselves again. But here’s the catch:

They have to want to be liberated.

And most people? They don’t.

Final Thought: Are We Drowning in Stupidity?

If Bonhoeffer were alive today, he’d take one look at Twitter and immediately ask to be executed again.

Misinformation spreads faster than facts.

People reject evidence just because it contradicts their opinions.

Blind loyalty to ideologies is stronger than ever.

Critical thinking is treated as a threat.

Evil is bad. But stupidity makes evil thrive.

And worst of all? Stupidity thinks it’s doing the right thing.

Be Well, Stay Kind, and Godspeed.

REFERENCES:

Bonhoeffer, D. (1951). Letters and Papers from Prison. SCM Press.

Matarese, M. (2018). Bonhoeffer’s Theological Ethics and the Politics of Resistance. Oxford University Press.

Metaxas, E. (2010). Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. Thomas Nelson.

Pomeroy, S. (2016). "The Problem of Stupidity in Bonhoeffer's Thought." The Journal of Theology and Culture, 12(4), 67-84.