Might 'stupid' reflect a slight asperity or distance on the part of the author? Or does the word belong wholly to the character, with the author, in a rush of sympathy, having 'handed' it, as it were, to the tearful fellow?

Empire is a ‘smooth space’, as Hardt and Negri put it with reference to a concept coined by Deleuze. It does not experience the ‘asperities’ that are the borders or political and/or economic inequalities characteristic of the national ancien régime.

I noticed a certain…asperity about so-called cancel culture when it came up in online recovery circles

a court so rich in excrescences and asperities that his choice of groundstroke—forehand or backhand—necessarily depended on the ball’s right-angled bounce

And I might say, he added with slight asperity, —it’s not entirely a pose.