You can’t fix stupid — but you can blame it

Hanlon’s razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

Which is more likely: That the world is governed by people exactly as incompetent and stupid as they appear or that a massive conspiracy runs everything?

I have worked for the US military, the US federal government, and in the legislature of a state government. I am always impressed with how easy it is to screw up the simplest thing. I’ve worked with governors, senators, generals, and CEO's. There is always a great group of people that seemed to fail upwards. And they’re in charge.

What’s more likely: That the US got into the Iraq War because of a convoluted scheme involving thousands of people in dozens of countries, corporations, and media outlets or that the people in the government, corporate, and media world are as egotistical, capricious, shortsighted, and incompetent as they seem and blundered us into that conflict for an ill-defined politically motivated or profit-driven objective?

Is it really very likely the same corporations that came up with New Coke and an exploding phone are nefarious and smart enough to control entire arms of government(s)?

What’s more likely: That the guy who cut you off in traffic is a rampaging douche hell-bent on ruining your commute or that he has his own shit going on, doesn’t care about you at all, and it’s insane to attribute personal animosity to your 9-second encounter?

The world doesn’t revolve around you, people have other intentions besides good or evil, and you will understand the world better if you treat people like human beings instead of characters in a badly-written dystopian young adult novel.