Elon and Trump show how wrong sci-fi writers have been about villains.
They are always making them evil geniuses, but it is now clear that sheer stupidity is a core trait of these types of villains. Without stupidity they would be totally different people, and never would have risen as such.
They are always making them evil geniuses, but it is now clear that sheer stupidity is a core trait of these types of villains. Without stupidity they would be totally different people, and never would have risen as such.
Comments
They should give you a tv show
Whereas the Trump administration is pure, distilled evil.
Their fans constantly overestimate them, and their enemies constantly underestimate them.
That’s what makes them so dangerous.
Nietzsche, "Beyond Good and Evil, Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future"
... "but" they seem to ask "why stop at 'occasionally'?"
― Simone Weil
Sometimes --maybe often-- evil people are as cartoonishly evil as possible. Not cartoonish as in harmless but cartoonish as in unsubtle in their evil.
"Oh no Real Life Henchmen kinda stupid"
Consider the classic:
https://legendspbem.angelfire.com/eviloverlordlist.html
It's easy to look stupid when you don't give a fuck so openly that everyone is shocked.
musk is a bit more intelligent, but only a bit. most of what he knows is surface level or wrong but spoken with the confidence of a mediocre white man
So I am not sure where you are placing your indication of smart... Is it IQ, social savvy, EQ, logic, all of the above? Something else?
Trump is smart enough to convince half of American voters to put him in power. Privilege alone can't manage that. A person has to be smart enough to leverage privilege for this level of power.
Average is a C. So we are talking a B-/B here, not A+
It's only gotten more obvious.