Willful stupidity is a form of cruelty. It is a subtle and usually unrecognizable form of sadism.
And what is willful stupidity? An emotional resistance to effectiveness and accurate understanding. It is an internal lie told to mask an unpleasant truth, which is the presence of unclaimed and unacknowleged viciousness.
Nearly all of us are capable of cruelty we do not want to own and admit. Sades own defense was that he was like most other people, only honest and not hypocritical. This of course does not make evil good, but he was not wrong in stating that most outwardly pious people were much more like him than the angels they praised.
I would say careful and sincere efforts at understanding others—and the world itself—are always a form of generosity of spirit. Indeed this is often all I have to offer, but one can only give what one has. I am otherwise a very poor man. I work daily to become more wealthy in the ways that matter.