In Defense of Stupidity

Abstract Stupidity is viewed as the antithesis of enlightened thinking. This article opposes this view. Stupidity is a complicated subject position that resists the hegemonic status of expert knowledge, performs an alternative way of being, and refuses capital accumulation. The antistupidity and epistemological project of the West operated alongside colonialism, dispossession of first peoples, the enslavement of conquered populations, genocide, and the creation of hierarchies denoting racial superiority and inferiority. Close to the experience of bewilderment, stupidity reveals the context-bound character of what passes as knowledge, resists epistemological totalitarianism, can be a tactic of resistance, and provides comic relief from the pessimism that characterizes left-leaning academic work. The article’s defense of stupidity draws from a variety of examples and sources including canonical philosophical authors, popular culture, and contemporary politics. The political and utopian function of stupidity is visible in acts of refusal, prankster youth sabotage, and street skateboarding.