# The Parasitic Mind  ## Metadata - Author: [[Gad Saad]] - Full Title: The Parasitic Mind - Category: #books ## Highlights - collective malady that destroys people’s capacity to think rationally. ([Location 43](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=43)) - bad ideas, spawned on university campuses, ([Location 44](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=44)) - On September 11, 2001, nineteen men armed with nothing more than religious fervor and ideological zealotry, killed nearly 3,000 people and permanently altered the New York skyscape if not our collective sense of security. The devastation inflicted by motivated terrorists can greatly exceed their number. Similarly, social justice ([Location 80](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=80)) - warriors and their ilk are intellectual terrorists, and they can wreak havoc on reason and our public life, limiting people’s willingness to speak and think freely, without ever constituting a majority. ([Location 82](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=82)) - a set of idea pathogens take complete control over the minds and souls of millions ([Location 87](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=87)) - I am a parasitologist of the human mind, seeking to inoculate people against a class of destructive ideas that destroy our capacity to reason. ([Location 117](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=117)) - I am a free thinker who is allergic to go-along, get-along group think. ([Location 127](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=127)) - freedom and truth, ([Location 128](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=128)) - the war against reason, science, and logic ([Location 130](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=130)) - why I fight against the enemies of reason. ([Location 226](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=226)) - freedom and truth. ([Location 248](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=248)) - Michael Marmot has documented the relationship between individuals’ health and the extent to which they possess control over their job responsibilities.2 More freedom equals better health. ([Location 265](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=265)) - Steve Biko famously authored a book titled I Write What I Like. ([Location 272](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=272)) - I am a professor of the people. ([Location 276](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=276)) - garage band effect. ([Location 284](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=284)) - Take the message directly to the people. We have the tools to do so. ([Location 288](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=288)) - my second life ideal, namely the pursuit of and defense of truth. ([Location 290](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=290)) - I can become a combative brawler when I witness departures from reason that stem either from willful ignorance or from diabolical, ideologically driven duplicity. ([Location 297](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=297)) - The quest for truth should always supersede one’s ego-defensive desire to be proven right. ([Location 299](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=299)) - science is so liberating. ([Location 300](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=300)) - Note: This may be reminiscent of Alfred Korzybski (?). - scientific knowledge is always provisional. ([Location 300](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=300)) - epistemic humility. ([Location 301](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=301)) - in his narcissistic and delusional bubble, his perfect record of superior knowledge remained intact. ([Location 314](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=314)) - Dunning-Kruger effect, that is, a self-assuredness and supreme confidence despite one’s idiocy ([Location 318](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=318)) - Confucius was correct: “To know what you know and what you do not know, that is true knowledge.” ([Location 322](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=322)) - universities are both the source of scientific truths and the dispensers of outlandish anti-truths. ([Location 324](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=324)) - founding the field of evolutionary consumption. ([Location 331](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=331)) - Beyond being purveyors of anti-science (postmodernism) and science denialism (biophobia), universities serve as patient zero for a broad range of other dreadfully bad ideas and movements. ([Location 364](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=364)) - reward mechanisms in academia that are upside down. The herd mindset is rewarded. Innovative thinkers are chastised. ([Location 367](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=367)) - If they go unchecked, parasitic idea pathogens, spawned by universities, eventually start to infect every aspect of our society. ([Location 371](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=371)) - parasitic pathogens of the human mind. ([Location 384](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=384)) - Once these mind viruses take hold of one’s neuronal circuitry, the afflicted victim loses the ability to use reason, logic, and science to navigate the world. ([Location 386](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=386)) - parasitic viruses of the human mind (devastatingly bad ideas) function in a similar manner. ([Location 400](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=400)) - infected ecosystem: the university. ([Location 404](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=404)) - Ostrich Parasitic Syndrome (OPS), ([Location 407](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=407)) - two-step cognitive vaccine: 1) providing OPS sufferers with accurate information, and 2) ensuring that OPS sufferers learn how to process information according to the evidentiary rules of science and logic. ([Location 413](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=413)) - political correctness (as enforced by the thought police, the language police, and social justice warriors), postmodernism, radical feminism, social constructivism, cultural and moral relativism, and the culture of perpetual offense and victimhood ([Location 432](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=432)) - If the truth contradicts deeply held beliefs, that is too bad. ([Location 463](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=463)) - epistemological dichotomania. ([Location 475](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=475)) - We are both thinking and feeling animals. The challenge is to know when to ([Location 481](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=481)) - activate the cognitive (thinking) versus the affective (feeling) systems. ([Location 482](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=482)) - cognitive (thinking), affective (feeling), and conative (behavioral) ([Location 500](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=500)) - opinion is formed post-purchase. ([Location 504](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=504)) - we do not need to construe thinking and feeling as antithetical to one another. ([Location 505](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=505)) - when one’s emotions are applied in the proper context. ([Location 517](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=517)) - precisely what plagues our universities: what were once centers of intellectual development have become retreats for the emotionally fragile. ([Location 530](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=530)) - truth is increasingly taking a back seat to feelings. ([Location 538](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=538)) - telling the truth could be illegal. ([Location 548](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=548)) - deontological and consequentialist ethics. ([Location 562](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=562)) - Much of the lunacy that we see from the “progressive” camp is a result of consequentialism when it comes to the truth. ([Location 568](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=568)) - “Good grief, shouldn’t everything be within the pale of legitimate academic discourse, as long as it is presented with some degree of rigor? That’s the difference between a university and a madrassa.” ([Location 653](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=653)) - the victimhood narrative persists, unencumbered by facts. ([Location 658](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=658)) - If the truth hurts, it must be suppressed for the sake of diversity, inclusion, equity, and of course community cohesion. ([Location 668](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=668)) - In science knowing is always preferable to not knowing.”37 But today in academia, progressive ideology trumps scientific facts. ([Location 719](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=719)) - We would all be very boring if we felt the same way about everything. ([Location 728](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=728)) - It is up to us to empower ourselves. ([Location 730](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=730)) - No satire can compete with progressive buffoonery. ([Location 740](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=740)) - black robes of “freedom and liberation,” ([Location 749](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=749)) - people who have fallen prey to idea pathogens have lost control of their minds and their emotions—and those pathogens are spreading rapidly and threatening our freedom. ([Location 752](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=752)) - Niall Ferguson, the Harvard historian, proposed “Six Killer Apps” that define the greatness of the West, namely competition, scientific revolution, property rights, modern medicine, consumer society, and work ethic. ([Location 762](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=762)) - seems obvious that these online companies must be regulated as utilities. ([Location 788](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=788)) - Note: Who said utilities should be regulated. - American and Canadian universities are hardly bastions of free speech. Instead, they are echo chambers for the left. ([Location 852](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=852)) - Barack Obama who famously stated in an address to the United Nations assembly that “the future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.” On the contrary Mr. President, the future must belong to those who criticize, mock, ridicule, and satirize all prophets, ideas, religions, and ideologies. ([Location 916](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=916)) - Free societies do not recoil at the power of satire. They recognize that all beliefs and ideologies are fair game. Once we delimit what can be satirized, we are no longer living in a free society. ([Location 963](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=963)) - The recognition of scientific excellence ought to be driven by meritocratic ideals, and yet it is increasingly contaminated by identity politics. ([Location 986](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=986)) - Scientific truths and natural laws exist independent of researchers’ identities. ([Location 999](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=999)) - All claims about the natural world must pass through the evidentiary prism of the scientific method. ([Location 1021](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=1021)) - The reality is that innumerable existing lands have belonged to someone else at some point. ([Location 1031](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=1031)) - The contemporary progressive mantra considers it laudable to argue that different races, cultures, or religions possess distinct ways of knowing. ([Location 1054](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=1054)) - Ludwig von Mises, a leading figure of the Austrian School of Economics and a staunch defender of classical liberalism, coined the term polylogism to capture this exact folly. ([Location 1057](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=1057)) - Polylogism is an anti-science notion, ([Location 1065](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=1065)) - The scientific method liberates us to pursue truth, regardless of who we are. ([Location 1068](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=1068)) - there is only one truth, and we find it through the scientific method. ([Location 1073](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=1073)) - intellectual and political diversity are heretical ideas that need to be expunged. ([Location 1077](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=1077)) - Implicit Association Test (IAT), which is supposed to measure people’s latent biases. ([Location 1085](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=1085)) - Totalitarian ideologies insist on conformity, ([Location 1117](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=1117)) - adult toddlers. ([Location 1148](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=1148)) - I am invariably told: “Professors are educated, intellectually sophisticated, and smart. So of course, they are liberal. ([Location 1151](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=1151)) - universities today have become anti-Darwinian cesspools of barren ideological conformity. ([Location 1176](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=1176)) - four most liberal professions, in decreasing order, were the entertainment industry, academia, online computer services, and newspapers and print media. ([Location 1178](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=1178)) - Ronald Reagan, ([Location 1198](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=1198)) - freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. ([Location 1199](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0853F4VKP&location=1199))