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A review by aaronsequel
The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense by Gad Saad
2.0
Gad Saad is credited as the author of The Parasitic Mind but it seems at least two writers are present: one, a professor guiding the student (reader) through the curious world of evolutionary psychology and two, a very, very online veteran of the culture war, smarting from the bops and bruises incurred during—ahem—Twitter spats. The latter takes lead through most of the book’s eight chapters, leaving the former to only shine towards the end—a bizarre editorial choice, as the second-to-last chapter provides the clearest insight into nomological networking that would have made so much of its preceding content more navigable. Alas, rage is the bait and epistemology is the trap—but shouldn’t it be the other way around?
Even if/as truth abounds, Saad does himself no favours with his unpalatable style. There’s even a totally unnecessary chauvinism in these pages he doesn’t hide from—indeed he embraces it by repeatedly invoking the godawful phrase “testicular fortitude” to underscore his words of encouragement. Equally anachronistic are his derisions: his enemies, for example, are constantly tagged “social justice warriors”—a term I don’t think I’ve heard used unironically in the decade prior to this book's publication in 2020(!). And yet here it is, again and again and again and again and again.
Inquiry and truth and honesty will never become passé, yet there’s something deeply unfashionable about Saad’s chosen approach to timelessness.
Even if/as truth abounds, Saad does himself no favours with his unpalatable style. There’s even a totally unnecessary chauvinism in these pages he doesn’t hide from—indeed he embraces it by repeatedly invoking the godawful phrase “testicular fortitude” to underscore his words of encouragement. Equally anachronistic are his derisions: his enemies, for example, are constantly tagged “social justice warriors”—a term I don’t think I’ve heard used unironically in the decade prior to this book's publication in 2020(!). And yet here it is, again and again and again and again and again.
Inquiry and truth and honesty will never become passé, yet there’s something deeply unfashionable about Saad’s chosen approach to timelessness.