Are global static classes and methods bad?

Question

It\'s generally agreed upon that relying heavily on global stuff is to be avoided. Wouldn\'t using static classes and methods be the same thing?

Answer 1

I think the bad thing about global variables is the idea of having global state - variables that can be manipulated anywhere and tend to cause unintended side effects in far-flung areas of a program.

Static data would be similar to global variables in that they introduce a kind of global state. Static methods though are not nearly as bad, assuming they are stateless.