useful idiot

English

Etymology

The earliest known usage in Western media is in a 1948 article in the social-democratic Italian paper L'Umanità – as cited in the New York Times article on Italian politics (see quotations). Often misattributed to Vladimir Lenin.

Noun

useful idiot (plural useful idiots)

1. (historical, derogatory, political jargon) A Communist sympathizer in Western countries, from the perspective of the political right.
   • 1948 June 21, Arnold Cortesi, “Communist Shift Is Seen In Europe”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN, page 14:

     L'Umanita said the Communists would give the “useful idiots” of the left-wing Socialist party the choice of merging with the Communist party or getting out.

   • 2020 August 7, Kurt Andersen, “College-Educated Professionals Are Capitalism’s Useful Idiots”, in The Atlantic‎^[2]:

     During the 1930s and ’40s and ’50s, the right had derided liberal writers and editors as Communists’ “useful idiots,” unwittingly doing the Communists’ propaganda work; it looks in retrospect as if, starting in the 1970s, a lot of them—of us—became capitalists’ useful idiots.

2. (derogatory, political jargon) One who is seen as unwittingly supporting a malignant cause through naive attempts to be a force for good.
   • 2009 January 22, Alex Knepper, “Obama's cabinet appointments contradict with message”, in The Mirror (Fairfield University)‎^[3], volume 34, number 15, page 3:

     But what should the Obama Cult do now? The man has turned off the switch on the "Hopenosis" and has revealed the "Change Brigade" for the useful idiots they were.

   • 2020 September 14, Jeffrey Goldberg, quoting Alexander Vindman, “Alexander Vindman: Trump Is Putin’s ‘Useful Idiot’”, in The Atlantic‎^[4]:

     “President Trump should be considered to be a useful idiot and a fellow traveler, which makes him an unwitting agent of Putin,” he says.

Translations

political sense

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 有用的白痴 (yǒuyòng de báichī)

• Czech: užitečný idiot (cs) m
• Danish: nyttig idiot c
• Estonian: kasulik idioot
• Finnish: hyödyllinen idiootti
• French: idiot utile (fr) m, idiote utile (fr) f
• German: nützlicher Idiot m, nützliche Idiotin f
• Greek: χρήσιμος ηλίθιος (el) m (chrísimos ilíthios)
• Hebrew: אידיוט שימושי m (idiot shimushi)
• Hungarian: hasznos idióta
• Icelandic: nytsamur sakleysingi
• Italian: utile idiota m or f
• Korean: 유용한 바보 (yuyonghan babo)
• Marathi: उपयोगी मूर्ख m (upyogī mūrkha), कामाचा मूर्ख m (kāmācā mūrkha)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: nyttig idiot m

  Nynorsk: nyttig idiot m

• Polish: pożyteczny idiota (pl) m, pożyteczna idiotka f
• Portuguese: idiota útil (pt) m or f
• Russian: поле́зный идио́т (ru) m (poléznyj idiót), поле́зная идио́тка f (poléznaja idiótka)
• Spanish: idiota útil m or f, tonto útil m, tonta útil m
• Swedish: nyttig idiot (sv) c
• Telugu: పనికొచ్చే చవట (panikoccē cavaṭa)
• Ukrainian: кори́сний ідіо́т m (korýsnyj idiót), кори́сна ідіо́тка f (korýsna idiótka)

Further reading

• useful idiot on Wikipedia.Wikipedia