Stalin's Razor

I'd like to introduce a new concept into the general philosophical/political debate of which I am a part, with both the right and the left.

I base this concept - Stalin's Razor - on Occam's Razor, which postulates that the simplest explanation, with the least number of factors involved, is the most likely. Common sense, really, but in an age where you have people pretending creationism has merit, it bears repeating.

Stalin's Razor holds that, given a choice between stupidity and malicious intent in explaining a given occurence, choose stupidity, as it is far more widespread and common than actual malice.

For example, I do not believe that values gasbag Bill Bennett's recent statements on the presumed benefits of aborting all black babies was caused by actual malice towards African-Americans; it's far more likely, and in congruence with what we know of him, that Bennett is a stupid ass who tried to come up with an analogy during an interview, and failed miserably to do so. It's possible, given his party affiliation, that he is indeed a racist; but using both Occam's and Stalin's Razor, we can sidestep that possibility and arrive at the definitive conclusion that he is inescapably an ignorant sack of shit.

The second part of Stalin's Razor postulates that, if your entire philosophy is based on the assumption that your opponents are motivated solely by evil, then you are a stupid ass who needs to move past the 'Lord of the Rings' stage of maturity. I've never heard of anyone - with the exception of half-Orc Ann Coulter - who relishes evil for its own sake. As an example, despite the best efforts of the crazy people over at 911truth.org, including that shouting match we had in Central Park this July 4th, I still do not believe that Dick Cheney masterminded 9/11. Rather, it seems most likely that Bush, Cheney, and their lovely bunch of neo-cons simply decided that terrorism was a Clinton thing, and were too ideological to look beyond their partisan blinkers at the warning signs. That's a crime of ommission, granted, but not commission.

On the other side, I find the premise that liberals are pro-choice because we enjoy killing babies, sucking fresh baby blood, or for general reasons of unmotivated depravity, to be self-serving, simplistic tripe. I feel the same about the various arguments that we 'hate christians', 'hate reactionaries', or whatever. Rather, we have a problem with government telling us what to do with our bodies, brains and speech, and if what we want to do involves some ass-fucking, then we're going to do it without asking the RNC's permission, thank you very much.

Stalin's Razor, incidentally, is most useful when dealing with the demented, the ideologues, and the plain silly. Use it with relish.