Here’s the quick and dirty explanation: the Dunning-Kruger effect is when stupid people make bad choices and reach incorrect conclusions, but their stupidity prevents them from recognizing their own errors. As a result, stupid people feel an imaginary sense of superiority, evaluating their own ability as above-average, far beneath their actual level; while smart, qualified people underestimate their abilities, suffering from imaginary sense of inferiority. This means that having talents might undermine self-assurance and deal a one-two punch to self-confidence, while conversely, the very stupidest bastards of all, those brainless and spineless losers who look at the world from the perspective of a worm, precisely these guys feel superior to everyone else.

Holocaust!!! [1]
Death to gypsies and turks!!!
die, dirty gyspies!!!
Happy Birthday Führer!
not that anything’s wrong, but hitler should come back
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR FÜHRER!!!
tuday [sic]  is a great day! 122 years since the birth of Hitler and 135 years since the April Uprising!
onward, people, are we bulgarians or what hooraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay

This week certain people wished for the death of certain other people only because they are of a different ethnicity. But there were no consequences.

Again this week, certain people beat other people senseless, because they are of a different faith. Never mind that freedom of religion is registered in Bulgaria. Never mind that these other people were standing in their place of worship and didn’t even lift a finger to strike back in self-defense. They beat them senseless. They beat them with a smile, darting forwards and backwards with bodies erect with adrenaline and brains numbed by idiocy. And in front of cameras on top of everything, without bothering to hide their faces. But there were no consequences.

Over the past few months we’ve been hearing ever more frequently about attacks on refugees, blacks and gays. Cries of “Turks get out!” and “Death to Gypsies!” grow ever louder, people are growing less and less concerned about publicly expressing openly racist and fascist opinions. But there are no consequences.

Pardon me. Not “but there are no consequences.” Rather “because there are no consequences.”

The inaction of the police, the prosecutors, and of the courts; society’s silence and the inadequacy of the media – these are the big bags of shit that fertilize the weeds of neo-Nazism.

And – oh yes, it affects you, too. Because now it’s the Roma, the Turks, gays and foreigners, but tomorrow it will be your beliefs, your haircut, the color of your skin, your clothes. Or those of your child. Everything different from gray uniformity arouses the Nazi boneheads. And their arguments will be the same as now. Bleedingly powerless. Crushingless hollow. Smashingly pathetic. They will be if you allow them to be, of course.

Because on the Island of the I-Couldn’t-Care-Less, where most of us have gone to live, the weather is always fine. But if while lying on the sunny beach of your satisfaction you listen closely for a moment, somewhere in the distance, beyond the steady noise of the waves, you’ll hear the tsunami warning.

[1] The quotes are from the Facebook page for the event “National Protest against the Gypsification of Bulgaria!” planned for May 8, 2011, which as of April 20 had 8,700 confirmed attendees, 3,200 maybes and 4,100 people not attending. You can report the page here, at the very bottom with “Report event”. [back]

This article expresses the author’s personal opinion and does not necessarily represent the position of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee.