[andrei_says_]

BEM I think comes from choice to aggressively reduce complexity, not from ignorance.

Sprinkled with a tiny bit of specificity classes for state, it combines best of both worlds.

[ZenPsycho]

then why is BEM more complex than just plain CSS? if the idea is to reduce complexity, that’s a giant fail.

[andrei_says_]

It is less complex in that it eliminates specificity conflicts and approaches CSS in a modular fashion by namespacing each module/block.

You have to name things, then you don't have to apply multiple rules.