Dinner conversation in Vienna highlighted EU officials' perceived "stupidity syndrome," akin to Bonhoeffer's concept, as evident in Commissioner Breton's letter warning Elon Musk about a potential violation of free speech laws during his talk with Trump. Breton, despite his intelligence, seems to have succumbed to irrationality, with his warnings reflecting a concerning trend of censorship under ideological pressures.
EU Commissioner Makes Fool of Himself By penning a warning letter to Elon Musk before his conversation with Trump, Thierry Breton strove to make himself as ridiculous as possible. Wed, 14 Aug 2024 15:44:45 GMT https://petermcculloughmd.substack.com/p/eu-commissioner-makes-fool-of-himself At dinner last night with an old friend in Vienna, he proposed that many officials in the European Union are now suffering from the syndrome that Dietrich Bonhoeffer described in the 1943 essay “Von der Dummheit” (“On Stupidity”). As Bonhoeffer described it , under the pressure of ideology and propaganda, many people—including those blessed with high native intelligence—may be seized by stupidity. Literally, they find themselves doing incredibly stupid things and participating in incredibly stupid enterprises that make no sense to people of ordinary prudence who have, for whatever reasons, remained immune to the stupidity contagion.
The occasion of my friend’s reflections was the news that EU Commissioner Thierry Breton had sent a letter to X CEO Elon Musk, warning him that his forthcoming conversation with U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump could violate the EU Digital Services Act— an Orwellian piece of legislation that authorizes censorship of online content for the usual lying, humbug rationale that has now been normalized in what was once a civilization that valued free speech.
Underlying Commissioner Breton’s letter was his probability assessment that Elon Musk and Donald Trump would, in their conversation, promote hatred, disorder, and incitement to violence. Based on his probability assessment, Breton took it upon himself to warn Musk and Trump that they needed to exercise due diligence in making sure that they did not indulge in such speech.
Given that Breton is not, like Kamala Harris, suffering from a lack of native intelligence, it appears that he has been seized by the Dummheit syndrome described by Bonhoeffer. His letter to Elon Musk may be the stupidest thing I’ve read all year. Given the moronic deluge that pours from the world’s capitals these days, this is really saying something.
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