More likely they are just imperfect humans.

That's a bit vague; imperfect humans are both malicious and incompetent, often at the same time.

And often neither.

Then from whence came their imperfection?

Just stop. Is it really hard to understand that normal people can make mistakes without being malicious or incompetent? Imperfect and incompetent are not synonyms.

And my response to the OP was to push back on the idea that only "idiots" could make mistakes. To me that is an absurdly reductionist view of human nature.

You tell me stop and then proceed to ask a question? How incredibly rude. I suggest you rethink your philosophy of discourse, and words (hint: most qualities such as incompetence and maliciousness exist on a continuum).

Huh? You were labeling people as incompetent and supporting the OP's idea they were idiots. I was asking for empathy and understanding that people can make mistakes. And when I tell you to stop, I'm the rude one?

Yeah, telling somebody to cease communication and then asking them a question is absolutely rude. I think we're all incompetent to varying degrees in different domains, I don't think it's rude to express that. From my perspective I don't feel I was rude at all in this exchange until my last message with the snarky "hint" part, but I was okay with that since you had essentially just told me to shut up.

You are misinterpreting my very terse "Just stop". If I were to expand it: "Just stop trying to convince me that people who make 'mistakes' can only be incompetent, malicious, or idiots"

That is not the same thing as "Just stop communicating" or "shut up". I shouldn't have been so terse. Without the verbal cues you made a different assumption about what I was trying to say.

In this context I don't really see a difference between "stop making your point about the subject we've been communicating about" and "stop communicating in general." Am I supposed to talk about the weather, or engage in a lengthy meta-discussion about talking about the subject we've been talking about?

I never used the term idiots, that's you putting someone else's words in my mouth.

It's hard for me to imagine how a person can make a mistake in a given domain without being at least bit incompetent in it, hence my point about competence/incompetence existing on a continuum.

Edit: ...and if the person were malicious, it wouldn't be a mistake to begin with.

So people extremely knowledgeable in a domain don't make mistakes in that domain? Or are they just "one notch too low" on the continuum- enough so that they make a mistake? I just don't think that holds.

Mistakes aren't always made due to incompetency and extremely competent people still can make mistakes.

I think most of the "seven factors that lead to stupidity" could still affect someone very competent: https://fs.blog/2019/01/how-not-to-be-stupid/

Well, I do apologize for my sloppy writing that made you think I was telling you to shut up. That wasn't my intent. I was just trying to say that your argument wasn't persuasive to me.

We'll just have to agree to disagree regarding human nature.