GAD SAAD HAS BEEN WARNING US. AMERICA NEEDS TO LISTEN.
By Amy Buttermaker | November 1, 2026
There are people on the internet who make noise, people who repeat whatever talking points they’re handed, and then there are people who actually make you stop and think.
Dr. Gad Saad belongs in that last category.
And if you haven’t been listening to this man, I strongly suggest you start.
Because while America has been busy arguing over who can claim the moral high ground, Saad has been warning about something far more dangerous.
Suicidal empathy.
Two words that explain an alarming amount of what we’re watching unfold in this country.
And the more I listen to him, the more I wonder how the hell we got to a place where protecting ourselves, our families, and our civilization somehow became controversial.
WHO IS GAD SAAD?
First, let’s establish that we’re not talking about some random guy with a podcast and an opinion.
Gad Saad is a Lebanese-born Canadian evolutionary behavioral scientist, professor, researcher, and bestselling author.
He earned his bachelor’s degree and MBA from McGill University before completing his master’s degree and PhD at Cornell University.
He served as a professor of marketing at Concordia University and held its Research Chair in Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences and Darwinian Consumption from 2008 to 2018.
He’s also been affiliated with Cornell, Dartmouth, and the University of California, Irvine, and is currently a scholar at the University of Mississippi’s Declaration of Independence Center for the Study of American Freedom.
The man has spent decades studying human behavior, decision-making, evolutionary psychology, and the forces that influence how people think.
And he has written extensively about it.
His books include:
The Evolutionary Bases of Consumption (2007)
The Consuming Instinct (2011)
The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense (2020)
The Saad Truth about Happiness: 8 Secrets for Leading the Good Life (2023)
Suicidal Empathy: Dying to Be Kind (2026)
That last book should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand the argument he’s making about Western society.
Because whether you agree with every conclusion or not, the questions he’s asking deserve serious consideration.
WHEN EMPATHY BECOMES A WEAPON AGAINST COMMON SENSE
Let’s get something straight.
Empathy is not a bad thing.
I’m a nurse. I’ve spent years caring for vulnerable people, including those approaching the end of their lives.
I understand compassion.
I’m also Catholic. Charity, mercy, and caring for others are not foreign concepts to me.
But compassion without judgment can become dangerous.
And that is the distinction Saad has been trying to get people to understand.
In Suicidal Empathy: Dying to Be Kind, he argues that Western societies have developed a destructive tendency to elevate feelings above consequences.
We become so concerned with appearing compassionate that we stop asking whether our decisions are actually helping anyone.
Consider criminal justice.
We can acknowledge that someone had a difficult childhood, experienced trauma, or struggled with addiction.
We can recognize their humanity.
But at what point does our compassion for the offender become indifference toward the victim?
What about the family whose loved one was assaulted?
What about the elderly woman afraid to walk through her own neighborhood?
What about the child who deserves to play in a safe park?
Their lives matter, too.
And that is where Saad’s argument becomes particularly important.
Empathy cannot be reserved exclusively for the person causing the harm.
That’s not compassion.
That’s a catastrophic failure to recognize whose safety and well-being are also at stake.
AMERICA HAS CONFUSED KINDNESS WITH SURRENDER
Look at how we discuss immigration, crime, public safety, and national security.
Every difficult policy decision seems to become a competition over who can demonstrate the most compassion.
Ask whether a country has the right to enforce its borders, and someone will accuse you of lacking humanity.
Ask whether violent offenders should face meaningful consequences, and suddenly you’re being lectured about their circumstances.
Ask whether American citizens should come first in decisions made by their own government, and somehow that becomes a controversial statement.
I’m sorry, but when did having boundaries become cruelty?
A country can recognize human suffering without abandoning its responsibility to its own citizens.
A society can believe in rehabilitation without sacrificing public safety.
And people can be compassionate without being obligated to accept every demand made in compassion’s name.
Those aren’t contradictions.
They’re the responsibilities that come with making difficult decisions.
Saad’s warning is that when empathy becomes detached from reason, we risk creating policies that feel morally satisfying while producing destructive consequences.
I think he’s right.
And I think we’re watching that argument play out across America.
THE PARASITIC MIND WAS ANOTHER WARNING
Long before Suicidal Empathy, Saad published The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense.
In that book, he examined how destructive ideas can spread through institutions, universities, and public discourse.
His central concern was the abandonment of reason and evidence in favor of ideological conformity.
And this is another reason I respect him.
He doesn’t simply tell people what to think.
He challenges the intellectual habits that allow bad ideas to survive.
How many times have we watched someone ask a perfectly reasonable question only to be attacked for asking it?
How often does an argument turn into accusations and labels rather than an actual discussion?
At some point, we’ve apparently decided that being offended is an acceptable substitute for being correct.
And God forbid someone asks for evidence.
That’s the kind of intellectual environment Saad has spent years criticizing.
THIS MAN KNOWS WHAT IT MEANS TO LOSE A HOME
There’s another part of Gad Saad’s story that matters.
He was born in Beirut, Lebanon, into a Jewish family.
His childhood was shaped by a country descending into civil war, and his family eventually left Lebanon for Canada.
That experience is worth remembering when he speaks about the fragility of societies.
He isn’t simply discussing civilization as an abstract academic concept.
He has personal experience with what happens when a country becomes consumed by division and instability.
That doesn’t automatically make every argument he makes correct.
But it certainly gives his warnings a perspective that deserves respect.
Especially when so many Americans seem convinced that the institutions, freedoms, and stability we’ve inherited are somehow indestructible.
They’re not.
History has demonstrated that repeatedly.
Civilizations don’t come with lifetime warranties.
AND THEN SOMETHING PRETTY FUCKING AMAZING HAPPENED
Now, here’s where this gets personal.
Yesterday, October 31, I posted a video of Gad Saad discussing his warnings.
My message was simple:
“GAD SAAD HAS BEEN WARNING US AND EVERY AMERICAN SHOULD LISTEN.”
I added that suicidal empathy will be the fall of America.
And then Gad Saad himself quote-posted me.
His message?
“Listen…”
One word.
That was all he needed.
Today, November 1, I found myself in another exchange with him.
I had thanked him for helping save the world from white liberal women.
Yes, that’s what I said.
And he responded:
“I’m doing my best!”
Naturally, I replied:
“SIR. YOU’RE DOING BETTER THAN YOU KNOW. 💯”
And then I admitted something that doesn’t happen very often.
I’m usually the one being savage.
But now?
I’m officially fangirling over Gad Saad.
Listen, I’m a foul-mouthed Irish Catholic girl from Jersey.
I’m not a professor. I don’t have a PhD from Cornell. I don’t spend my days writing academic papers about evolutionary psychology.
I have opinions, a mouth that occasionally gets ahead of me, and absolutely no problem telling people what I think.
So when someone whose intelligence and work I genuinely respect takes the time to acknowledge something I’ve said?
Yeah.
That’s pretty fucking amazing.
Not because I need validation from someone famous.
But because there’s something special about knowing that a person you’ve spent time listening to, learning from, and respecting has actually heard you, too.
And for a moment, the distance between a world-renowned intellectual and some Jersey girl yelling about the state of America on X disappeared.
I won’t pretend that wasn’t a big deal to me.
It was.
MY FINAL THOUGHT
I respect Gad Saad because he’s willing to ask uncomfortable questions.
Because he understands that good intentions do not guarantee good outcomes.
Because he recognizes that a society cannot survive by refusing to acknowledge threats, consequences, or human nature.
And because he continues to challenge people to think, even when thinking has become an increasingly unpopular activity.
We should be able to care about people without abandoning common sense.
We should be able to defend our country without apologizing for its existence.
And we should be able to distinguish between genuine compassion and policies that create more suffering than they prevent.
A civilization that refuses to protect itself isn’t demonstrating moral superiority. It’s gambling with its own survival.
That’s the warning I hear in Gad Saad’s work.
And it’s why I believe more Americans need to listen.
So, Dr. Saad, if you happen to read this:
Thank you.
For the books. For the research. For the warnings. For refusing to shut up when the world desperately needs people willing to speak.
And for making one foul-mouthed Irish Catholic girl from Jersey completely lose her usual savage composure for a minute.
You said you’re doing your best.
Sir, you’re doing better than you know.
And I sincerely hope America starts listening before we discover just how right your warnings were.
— Amy Buttermaker
Jagaloons.com