Capitol Hill Blue Forums Life and Moral Issues American Humor The 5 basic rules of Human Stupidity

The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity is a short essay written by the Italian economist Carlo Cipolla. The first edition was written in English and released in 1976. Originally, it was intentionally distributed only among his friends on a confidential basis. The reason is simple. That book was intended as a sort of joke, where he faced a few serious topics in a lighthearted and not-to-be-taken-too-seriously way.

The most famous excerpt is the one on human stupidity. When addressing such a sensible theme, he came up with an extravagant and interesting theory, which earned him incredible success. Not only was the essay officially published, but it was also translated into many languages and distributed worldwide. Now, it represents a milestone on the controversial topic of human stupidity.

Let’s dive into the 5 basic laws of human stupidity.
First Basic Law
Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.

"independent" voters

Across Virginia's populous suburbs, especially in northern Virginia and the Richmond metropolitan area, and in defense-rich Hampton Roads, elections have largely been lost or won by the hundreds of thousands of voters who don't hold a firm allegiance to either party.

In this year's gubernatorial election, many of these independents, who fueled Democratic gains in recent cycles, are up for grabs, with many already showing a reception to Youngkin's messaging around economic issues.

"What we see from the data so far is that those who have been undecided or have classified themselves as Independent are leaning towards Youngkin," Faulkner told Insider. "Given the nature of Virginia politics, that is what most of us would have expected."

In the latest Washington Post-Schar School poll, McAuliffe led Youngkin by a slim 49%-48% margin among likely voters — the survey had a margin of error of 4%. But the Republican enjoyed an 18-point lead with independents.

While many observers may be surprised with Youngkin's polling strength with independents, given the solid base of conservative support in the state, along with its not-too-distant history of electing Republicans across state government, Virginia's competitive nature in gubernatorial elections never went away.

"It's definitely inaccurate to classify Virginia as solidly blue," Faulkner said. "I think what many people were basing that on is the way that Virginia has voted in presidential elections over the past few years, but our state politics have been different. There is an ebb and flow, a back and forth, that goes on."

Black voters