Comment by cryptoz
2 days ago
FWIW, I used to love this phrase but over recent years have come to understand it is quite damaging. We live in a society where evil frequently hides behind a ‘stupid’ label, and people bring this quote up to defend or soften actions that are indeed done out of specific malicious intent.
Right? "Never attribute to malice what [... etc]" is always just a thought-terminating cliche these days.
TBH I have a hard time imagining how anyone, in the year 2026, thinks that we should default to assuming good intent behind words on the internet.
It's because we don't treat evil and stupidity the same when we should.