We need to talk about Trump – the twin of evil and stupidity

Just weeks into his second term, Trump has generated an avalanche of global headlines from his clash with Zelensky, tariff wars against all, talk of annexation of Canada and Greenland, and many more.

One little but telling episode went barely noticed and commented by the mainstream media. Trump posted a 33-second AI video on his Truth Social of a future what he termed Trump Gaza, showing how Gaza will be turned into a Dubai-like metropolis with him and Israeli Netanyahu sunbathing on the beach sipping cocktails, a grinning Elon Musk devouring hummus, a golden Trump statue, etc. Of course, the blissful paradise will arrive after the Jews cleanse Gaza of Palestinians with US help.

The video made me sick. This is pure moral evil displayed for all to see. I cannot think of any modern leader, let alone the leader of the self-claimed “free world”, putting on such a humanly repulsive and unredeemable show in front of the whole world. And with impunity.

People say Trump is bat-shit crazy so don’t take him seriously. People say we live in an Orwellian world where “war is peace” and “the IDF is the most moral army in the world” and in that world, Trump’s behavior is normal. People say Trump has long been bought off by Jewish money and he is just acting out on behalf of his masters. People say Trump is so stupid that he does not even know what he is doing is stupid.

While all those are true, they cannot explain how such sheer evil and stupidity is tolerated. It may be too much to ask for virtue from the leaders in the world we live in today. But normalizing evil and stupidity is one step too far. How did we get here?

We all know most Americans are decent people who would never do anything so plainly wrong like what Trump did. But why was there not an angry uproar? Why the passivity and indifference? Don’t people think there will be blowback from normalizing the evil and the deranged? Is there no fear of God anymore?

I think Hannah Arendt’s “banality of evil” theory can explain what is in play here. When people witness harassment or bullying but choose not to intervene, we are in a situation of banality of evil. Evil, according to Arendt, becomes banal when it acquires an unthinking and systemic character. Evil becomes banal when people build distance from it, justify it and even participate in it. There are no moral conundrums or revulsions. Evil does not even look like evil, it becomes faceless.

Very similar to the phenomena of demeritocracy which I wrote about in an earlier essay ((100) The West is a Demeritocracy - by Hua Bin - Hua’s Substack), the banality of evil becomes a reality when ordinary people rationalize patently deviant and deranged behavior such as Trump’s Gaza video.

Evil in the modern world can thrive not only in the hands of deranged individuals but in the hands of those who simply fail to confront it. They do not act out of a desire to inflict harm but rather out of a deep intellectual and moral paralysis.

When such apathy and indifference is institutionalized, I call the society the Stupidity society, where ordinary people develop a disregard of moral responsibility and passively accept the most deranged rhetoric and behavior and unjust ideologies.

Here I am not talking about the clinical type of stupidity defined as low intelligence, lack of mental capacity, or “being slow” colloquially. I am talking about the kind of stupidity that transcends a mere intellectual shortcoming or a simple lapse in judgement.

This kind of stupidity is not merely a weakness. It is a profound and destructive social force that is much more dangerous than evil itself. It is a form of resistance to critical thinking and an active refusal to reflect on actions and ideas. Unlike evil which can be confronted and restrained through reason, such stupidity is impervious to intellectual engagement. It resists awareness, self-correction and the capacity for change.

Such stupidity is different from ignorance. Ignorance stems from a lack of knowledge but stupidity is a deeper more entrenched condition, an unwillingness to embrace facts or new viewpoints. Stupid individuals do not simply lack knowledge, they actively reject the possibility of learning or evolving their perspectives based on facts. They cling to their unexamined beliefs and reject challenges that might force them to confront uncomfortable truths as a result.

This intellectual laziness often masquerades as loyalty or patriotism.

Stupidity is not simply an absence of thought. It is a refusal to think critically which makes it an insidious and self-perpetuating force. In this sense, stupidity is far more dangerous than ignorance because it closes the door to growth and understanding. This dangerous mindset finds its most terrifying expression when the passive compliance of ordinary citizens become immunized to evil, as we witnessed in Trump’s Gaza video.

This compliance is so destructive not as a result of active malice but rather the resistance from individuals who have become numb to moral and intellectual inquiry.

We already know Trump himself is both evil and stupid. The really important question for us is “has the US reached the nirvana of stupidity and evil”?