Electric Stupidity

Just Stop Oil activists pour orange liquid over robot at Elon Musk's Tesla store in London

Just Stop Oil activists urging “shut down the fascists” have poured orange liquid over a robot at Elon Musk’s Telsa store in London.

Two Just Stop Oil protesters poured orange liquid latex over an Optimus robot at the Westfield Tesla store on Wednesday, demanding the UK government phase out fossil fuel burning by 2030, the protest group said.


However amusing this silly protest against an electric car manufacturer might be, it is easy to agree with Dietrich Bonhoeffer about the dangers of unrestrained stupidity. 

Eccentric as they seem now, there is something sinister about people so willing to believe and act on totalitarian political nonsense. Their somewhat pitiful stupidity is also a pointer to the vastly more sinister stupidity of people behind them. 

Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease. Against stupidity we are defenseless.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer - After Ten Years (2017)