Hanlon's Razor is Dead

Hanlon’s razor is an adage or rule of thumb that states, “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”[1] It is a philosophical razor that promotes a way of eliminating unlikely explanations for human behavior, purportedly named after the American writer Robert J. Hanlon,[2][3] who submitted the statement to Murphy’s Law Book Two: More Reasons Why Things Go Wrong! (1980).[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon’s_razor

Nowadays, despite the Competency Crisis, I think we generally need to attribute things to malice. We are in a world where verification is easier than ever.

Consider past invocations:

We now have:

Failure implies intending but not achieving a particular outcome.

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One should not rule out the possibility that both malice and stupidity are involved. Best to assume malice, just to be on the safe side.

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