Stupidity is the same as evil if you judge by the results.

The line collapses the moral distinction between malice and incompetence by shifting the standard of judgment from intention to consequence. Atwood suggests that harm done through ignorance, carelessness, or thoughtlessness can be indistinguishable—socially and ethically—from harm done deliberately, because victims experience outcomes rather than motives. The aphorism also functions as a warning about moral complacency: excusing damage as “mere stupidity” can normalize preventable suffering and allow systems (political, bureaucratic, interpersonal) to keep producing destructive results. Implicitly, it argues for responsibility grounded in attention, knowledge, and foresight, not just “good intentions.”