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) 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 to unwittingly support a malignant cause through their '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 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)
• 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