Hacker News Reader

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.

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

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.

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