[mplappert]

“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” (or carelessness in this case)

[cryptoz]

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.

[12_throw_away]

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.

[pixl97]

It's because we don't treat evil and stupidity the same when we should.

[rubyfan]

I would attribute it to profit motive instead of either stupidity or malice.

[yoyohello13]

Yeah, I think this needs to be update for the modern age. "Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by greed." Seems to fit vastly more situations.

[overgard]

I'm fairly certain they're both malicious and stupid.