The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense

by Gad Saad

A fair society ensures that its members have equality of opportunities and not equality of outcomes as mandated by DIE edicts.

There is an ever-increasing ideological pressure to come up with more egregious departures from reason, as a signal of one’s progressive purity.

The quest for truth should always supersede one’s ego-defensive desire to be proven right. This is not an easy task because for most people it is difficult to admit to being wrong. This is precisely why science is so liberating. It offers a framework for auto-correction because scientific knowledge is always provisional. An accepted scientific fact today might be refuted tomorrow. As such, the scientific method engenders epistemic humility.

The proliferation of many of these bad ideas has yielded reward mechanisms in academia that are upside down. The herd mindset is rewarded. Innovative thinkers are chastised. “Stay in your lane” academics are rewarded. Outspoken academics are punished. Hyper-specialization is rewarded. Broad synthetic thinking is scorned. Every quality that should define intellectual courage is viewed as a problem. Anything that adheres to leftist tenets of progressivism is rewarded. Those who believe in equality of outcomes receive top-paying administrative jobs. Those who believe in meritocracy are frowned upon. If they go unchecked, parasitic idea pathogens, spawned by universities, eventually start to infect every aspect of our society.

Unless we win the battle of ideas, the enemies of reason, along with the mind viruses that they promulgate, will lead our free societies to lunatic self-destruction.

a rational person thinks; an irrational person feels.

The problem arises when domains that should be reserved for the intellect are hijacked by feelings. This is precisely what plagues our universities: what were once centers of intellectual development have become retreats for the emotionally fragile. The driving motto of the university is no longer the pursuit of truth but the coddling of hurt feelings.

There are two fundamental ethical orientations that guide people’s daily behaviors: deontological and consequentialist ethics.

“[I]s it not the case that we live in an age of emotional incontinence, when they who emote the most are believed to feel the most?”

Science is based on evidence, not politics. In science knowing is always preferable to not knowing.”37 But today in academia, progressive ideology trumps scientific facts.

“The idea that any kind of free society can be constructed in which people will never be offended or insulted, or in which they have the right to call on the law to defend them against being offended or insulted, is absurd.” Moreover: “The moment you say that an idea system is sacred, whether it’s a religious belief system or a secular ideology, the moment you declare a set of ideas to be immune from criticism, satire, derision, or contempt, freedom of thought becomes impossible.”6

“There is simply no better alternative than to allow those with unpopular views to express them and to allow those wishing to hear them to do so.”10

Several years ago, Tal Nitzan, then a doctoral student at Hebrew University, authored an award-winning paper that examined the incidence of rape as perpetrated by Israeli Defense Forces on Palestinian women. Undoubtedly, the goal was to uncover an epidemic of rape to demonstrate how diabolical those evil Jews truly were. When no such empirical reality was found, it was concluded (you might need to sit down for this) that this was proof of the extent to which the Israelis dehumanized the Palestinians.59 They were so hateful that they did not even consider the Palestinian women worthy of rape! If rapes are uncovered or if none are discovered, the same conclusion is reached: the Israelis are diabolical. All roads lead to self-flagellation and self-loathing. It’s the hallmark of a true “progressive.”

“Tolerance of intolerance is cowardice.”

In order to espouse their endless irrational positions while maintaining a straight face, social justice warriors must ignore, deny, or reject reality. Progressivism has become an enemy of reason.

Religious conversion is common to innumerable religions, yet it would appear that only one religion seems to motivate some of its converts to commit terrorism around the world. Why don’t recent converts to Jainism, orthodox Judaism, or Buddhism ever seem to “misinterpret” their peaceful religions and become terrorists? Somehow only one religion seems to produce converts who repeatedly misinterpret, mistranslate, and misunderstand their otherwise “peaceful” faith.

“First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a communist.Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a trade unionist.Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Jew.Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.” —Martin Niemöller, German theologian

In the great majority of instances, these are utterly useless endeavors meant to do nothing but advertise one’s supposed virtue to the world (hence the term virtue-signaling). It is a form of cheap and costless self-aggrandizing that feeds one’s ego. I must be a good person who truly cares, as evidenced by my progressive hashtag.

To criticize Islam does not make you an Islamophobe (a nonsensical term) nor a hater of individual Muslims. To scrutinize radical feminism does not make you a misogynist. To question open borders does not make you a racist. You can have an open heart filled with empathy and compassion and yet reject open borders. To assert that trans women (biological males) should not be competing in athletic competitions with biological females does not make you a transphobe.