How Did the West Become So Stupid?

Almost exactly a year ago I wrote a Substack post about Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s 1943 essay “On Stupidity.” At this time last year, I was concerned that Bonhoeffer’s observations seemed to be ever more pertinent to our own era.

This morning, while reading that Russian intelligence intercepted a phone conversation between ranking German military officers about blowing up the Crimea Bridge, I realized that much of the West, including Bonhoeffer’s native Germany, is now officially stupid.

We live in a...