Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense

Outstanding and insightful read. For a heavy topic, this was entertaining, informative and easy reading. I highly recommend this book!

in a world in which up is down and down is up, this was a welcome read. it nicely illustrates how academy has gone crazy and why it is dangerous.

The simplest way to explain Saad's book is to say that it is an informed argument against wokeism. Saad shows the multifaceted assault on society by the cultural elites that have taken political correctness to new levels of idiocy. Saad approaches the cultural dilemma from a scientist's point of view and from a basic reasonable perspective. Additionally, Saad has a sense of humor and a sarcastic edge that alleviates any textbookishness or bore from his writing. Anyone who has watched one of his videos from the safe space under his desk knows his humor and cutting wit. I have listened to several podcasts featuring Saad, so I have heard much of this content from his previously; however, it is articulated and codified well in this book to inform and entertain. Most of all, this book encourages readers to speak up and stand up for what we know is true and right. It is a worthy read during these times. One note of ironic criticism is Saad's approach to evolution v. creationism or intelligent design theories. He seems to apply the cancel culture process that he undermines in this book to academics or people in general that disagree with natural evolution / Darwinism without any room to disagree with his view that is popularly promoted among academics. However, there is a strong case to be made for intelligent design of the universe over and against natural evolution, especially in light of an ever increasing amount of fine tuning evidence. In this case, Saad has a huge blind spot from what I have gathered.

The basic thesis here is that certain ideas—in this case specifically bad ideas, though the same can also be said of good ideas—can transmit themselves from person to person as metaphorical pathogens and parasitize the minds of otherwise sane and intelligent people. It’s not an idea that’s original to this book or this author, and several other works have explored similar terrain, but that doesn’t mean the author’s own presentation is redundant or unoriginal. He treats the subject here through two primary frameworks: first, his professional experience as an evolutionary psychologist and, second, his personal experience having grown up as a Lebanese Jew during the Lebanese Civil War. Both of these perspectives, separately and together, make the author’s insights into the topic unique and, in many cases, particularly haunting. When I started reading it, I expected a deeper treatment of the subject from the perspective specifically of evolutionary psychology. Such material is covered in this book, but it’s less about the psychology of these idea pathogens and instead more a criticism of the bad ideas themselves, albeit from a psychologist’s perspective. In that sense, I didn’t quite get the book I was expecting to read, but it was still fascinating to explore the various topics (most of which were already known to be but some of which caught even me off guard). In many ways, less than a scientific work, this is more of a political call to action which grounds its reasoning in both science and history. For such a book, it’s excellent. One might quibble that the calls to action could be provided with some more practical advice, but that is indeed just quibbling. The topics the book covers are important and even if one disagrees with the author’s opinions on some of the issues—as will be inevitable because no one agrees with another person about everything—it’s well worth considering why he’s come to the conclusions he has. However, it’s also a book very much of its moment. Because it does focus so heavily and so directly on current events rather than on the specific processes by which these pathogenic ideas spread, its long-term relevance is questionable. I do recommend it, but if you’re going to read it, you should read it now. Ten or twenty years in the future, I’m sure, we’ll have an entirely different crop of pathogenic ideas to worry about.

Really good book that explains today's world, exactly, sadly.

THIS IS A GREAT BOOK!! RECOMMEND IT TO EVERYONE..BRILLIANT!

I am a 23 year old YouTuber with over 2M subscribers - my job is the internet. As you could imagine, most of my friends and the online communities I am a part of are VERY progressive. I also marched in the BLM protests and posted the black square, donated to the Minnesota Freedom Fund and supported the hashtags. I am super interested in mental health and wellness, the environment, and making our world a better place - I have very progressive hopes for Earth. As 2020 went on, I began to REALLY SEE and REALLY HEAR what people of the progressive mob were doing and saying. I began to realize what I was supporting, what ideas I was getting behind. It made me super uncomfortable and SUPER afraid to speak out about it due to the fear of being cancelled online. This book could not have come out at a better time and I was HOOKED once I began reading, mainly because it was the antidote to the chaos I had found myself surrounded by. The Parasitic Mind has done for me what a map does to a sailer in new waters. Politics and ideological concepts are generally out of my realm of expertise but my career and 2020 forced me in, and I followed along with what sounded right by my compass. This book has allowed me to refine my thoughts, perceptions, and ideological direction towards a logically brighter future than the one the mob has been pushing so hard. Gaad has wonderfully explained the situation happening not only in the campuses and businesses, but also on social media. Online forms of communication rule our perception and opinions of the world, especially when people we look up to get behind specific causes. I feel a sense of responsibility as a person of influence to spread ideas and back causes that ACTUALLY are good and create real positive change. The Parasitic Mind is the perfect guide for that! I look forward to more follow up interviews and eventual intellectual debates from Gaad on this book. The ideas presented are rock solid, and definitely more solid than any idea I've seen forcefully bullied in by the mob. 10/10 read!

If you are interested in the culture of academia at the current moment and curious how “woke” and radical ideologies have spread like wildfire into the minds of so many students and university instructors, then this book is a must read! Gad Saad’s style may not be for everyone (it’s not dumbed down easy reading for the masses) but for those who like reading detailed arguments infused with a healthy dose of discussion on evolution, then you will enjoy this book! You also do NOT need to agree with everything Dr. Saad says to find this book valuable: that is the whole point! In trying to show that universities have become a bastions for uniform thought in which opinions that do not conform to whatever the liberal norm of the day is are not welcome, Gad Saad can occasionally go out on a deep end to make some incendiary points. I do agree with about 90% of what he says (section on Bret Kavenaugh though a hard one to stomach for me); and, that is enough. I also have learned a lot about radical Islam from this book and Dr. Saad makes some harsh points against this ideology (using evidence to back himself up) that I think almost no other academic would be willing to make today. But best part of book is this: Gad Saad is funny! He has a sharp mind and natural knack for sarcasm—and this comes across on every page.

The book is a big disappointment as it presents the views of an anti-science and anti-common sense person. It’s all sounds like the kind of stuff that one hears nowadays from Trumpian “conservatives”, alt-right or downright neo-fascists. It’s a waste of money and time to read silly propaganda like that.

Understand your enemy is the first step to become the honey badger you deserve to be. Fight fight fight. Rage against the dying of the light.

Excellent Book - Excellent Author - Super Written And Easy To Understand.

Love the author anyway. Very vocal on this issue without fear or censure. A must read.

En una sociedad que está colapsando bajo ideas de "políticamente correcto" empiezan a, surgir las voces de alerta y este es un buen libro para ir empezando a analizar a donde como sociedad vamos