There is an axiom known as “Hanlon’s razor” that holds “never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” It is similar to the more well-known “Occam’s razor,” the principle that the simplest explanation is typically the correct one. As an instinctual conservative, and as someone who strives not to be constantly outraged, I find these rules of thumb quite useful for moderating my thinking. It is simply better, and oftentimes more accurate, to first assume that our political or ideological opponents are ignorant but well-meaning rather than the opposite.

Yet stupidity is not without consequence, and while preferable to malevolence, it can be just as harmful. Take, for instance, the San Francisco public school board. Most people don’t pay much attention to any school board other than the one directly involved with their children (if even then), but the San Francisco Unified School District board has managed to make national news multiple times over the past two weeks for several controversial actions, highlighting the way school boards across the country, with little scrutiny, have a big effect on what and how students learn. Each of these moves was made with an explicit purpose of pursuing so-called “anti-racism” and far-left notions of social justice, which, while bad for students’ education, is not altogether unusual. What made these local decisions become national points of discussion was how utterly inane the reasoning behind these and other similar decisions revealed themselves to be.