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AwTekker t1_jd567wl wrote

Reply to comment by Saul_Firehand in Los Angeles police accidentally release photos of undercover officers to watchdog website by BearJew1991

Malicious people love how popular this dumb idiom has gotten.

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onarainyafternoon t1_jd58b3h wrote

Probably, yeah, because malicious people aren't that common. Most people fuck-up out of laziness or genuine incompetence; most people are not trying to deliberately hurt other people. They hurt people with massive incompetence and apathy.

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TechFiend72 t1_jd5hoc2 wrote

I think police departments do attract more than their fair share of actually malicious people.

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SixStringNascarFan t1_jd5mk96 wrote

The ones that aren't actively malicious dont make it through academy

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TechFiend72 t1_jd64gp3 wrote

They don't stay that way. That is one of the sadest things about policing in this country is even people who go into with good intentions get corrupted by the system, and they either leave or convert.

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mlc885 t1_jd7orko wrote

There is no way that it is more likely that this waa intentional and not a crazy mistake. Leak the information in a less public way and have the cops either moved, fired, or killed, and then it probably wouldn't even make the news.

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Saul_Firehand t1_jd56qxo wrote

Tell me you don’t understand Hanlon’s razor without telling me you don’t understand it.

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Daripuff t1_jddz3qc wrote

Problem is, once it becomes a pattern, stupidity is no longer an adequate explanation.

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Saul_Firehand t1_jdi71z8 wrote

Because stupid can’t form patterns?

Animals can form patterns that harm others it doesn’t mean they did it out of malice.

Bad or stupid habits are easily formed.

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Daripuff t1_jdiks9m wrote

And you’re assuming that malice can’t pretend to be stupidity.

If there’s pattern of “stupidity” that just so happens to benefit the “stupid”, it’s very safe to assume malice.

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Saul_Firehand t1_jdj3srm wrote

That is literally the opposite of hanlons razor.

It is like you willfully ignore that and need to believe mustache twirling evil is why people do dumb stuff.

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Daripuff t1_jdj5w7y wrote

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

A pattern of apparent stupidity that benefits the “stupid” is not adequately explained by mere stupidity.

The fact it benefits the “stupid”, and the “stupid” keeps doing it, despite the harm it’s going to others (because malice wouldn’t even be a question if there were no harm happening) is all the evidence you need to assume malice.

Even if they are truly ignorant of the harm that’s happening, willful ignorance is malice.

Additionally lying and claiming stupidity is a common defense for the malicious who get caught. The intelligently malicious will make sure that their actions can appear to be explained by stupidity.

No, the variables of “The stupidity is a pattern” and “The stupidity benefits the one being stupid” change the equation enough that you’re the stupid one if you think that “they don’t know that they’re doing, they’re just dumb” is sufficient explanation.

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