cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/30565887
this post was submitted on 31 May 2025
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These are Cipolla's five fundamental laws of stupidity:
Always and inevitably, everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
The probability that a certain person (will) be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.
A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.
Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular, non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places, and under any circumstances, to deal and/or associate with stupid people always turns out to be a costly mistake.
A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person.
you emphasized #5, but i feel like we're still coming to grips with #4 right now
This argument can be used by both sides.
fun fact: using the phrase "both sides" demonstrates a bit of what he's talking about!
The very concept of there only being two possible sides covering all the details and combinations of social and political opinions on the ruling of an entire country is itself a perfect illustration of that stupidity.
Unless the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle.
I didn't expect that people would get stuck on the side part of my comment or I would have written that all sides can make that argument. The important part is that everybody thinks that the others must be stupid because everybody themselves always acts to the best of their knowledge.
Resolutions of conflicts that split society cannot be won by insisting on being right. There needs to be an understanding of the motivations of the others that needs to go beyond the assumptions that have already been made. Otherwise it comes down to crushing their will and removing their power, or the split will continue.
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