A very powerful essay. Tremendous thanks for it. It hit me in the gut just like your What Hannah Arendt Knew.

"Stupidity sits beside evil". I use to think evil was rare, but no longer. Psychiatrist M. Scott Peck defined evil as "the use of political power to destroy the spiritual growth of others in order to protect one's own sick self-image, functioning fundamentally as malignant self righteousness". That definition does a lot of work to describe where we are now. In that sense pretty much everyone in Trump’s orbit through their violence, coercion, sadism, deception, manipulation, desire for criminal impunity, and racism are extremely dangerous. Former NYT columnist Charles M. Blow in a 2018 opinion piece referred to them as "An Opera of Demons". Not only for the horrors they are doing, but what they really want to do.

It's why so many African-Americans like me are not engaged in full throated on the street protests as they destroy our country. They are looking for opportunities and excuses to murder us especially, then convince the stupid it was our own fault.

So, I would add don't be stupid and evil.