The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad - American Exceptionalism, The Scorpion and the Frog Fable, and Zohran Mamdani (The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad_1014)

00:00:00.360 Hi everybody, this is Gadsar. I wanted to begin by wishing the United States a wonderful 250th birthday.

00:00:10.740 I still remember in 1976, it had only been less than a year since we'd moved from Lebanon,

00:00:18.240 when it was the 1976 200th anniversary, and I had a soccer magazine where there was a soccer tournament

00:00:28.860 in the united states to celebrate the 200th anniversary and i i wonder if i still have it

00:00:36.140 somewhere and i'm not sure where it might be but in any case now we're celebrating the world cup

00:00:42.280 and the 250th anniversary may the united states exist for another 250 years and infinitely more

00:00:49.520 years and may it grow from strength to strength uh i won't do a clip today on why the united

00:00:56.940 States is the greatest country in the history of the world although it is for many reasons but

00:01:03.320 rather what I'd like to do is discuss why it needs to be very careful in order for it to be able to

00:01:10.960 celebrate the next 250 years with equal love of liberty and freedom and individual dignity and so

00:01:20.200 on. And I'm going to do that by first reading a passage from my latest book, Please Think

00:01:29.440 About Going and Getting a Copy, Suicidal Empathy. On page 39 of the book, I start with a new

00:01:38.840 section titled Unicornia, The Enchanted Land of No Risks. And so it's, I'm going to read

00:01:45.920 you pretty much the entire page and then I'm going to link it to something that I saw from a

00:01:53.920 politician in the United States and how he perfectly embodies the dangers that the United

00:02:00.600 States faces if it doesn't right its ship. Fables are enduring because they communicate universal

00:02:08.500 moral lessons that transcend time and place. Two of my favorites are The Scorpion and the Frog

00:02:15.100 and the farmer and the viper, each of which teach a slightly different lesson. In the former,

00:02:21.720 a scorpion asks a frog if it can hitch a ride on its back across the river. The frog is hesitant

00:02:27.880 to do so given that it fears the scorpion's sting. The frog's fear is assuaged by the scorpion

00:02:34.960 who confirms that it would be irrational to sting it as it would seal their demise. This convinces

00:02:41.460 the frog and they proceed across the river. On their journey and to the frog's utter dismay,

00:02:47.800 it feels the scorpion's sting. The frog asks the scorpion why it broke its promise, thus ensuring

00:02:54.960 that they would both perish, to which the scorpion quips that it could not help but do so because it

00:03:01.920 is in its nature. The lesson here is that we cannot live in a utopian world decoupled from reality.

00:03:09.240 It would be nice to ascribe noble qualities to the scorpion, but ultimately it is going to behave

00:03:16.300 in ways consistent with its evolved dispositional behaviors. In the second fable attributed to the

00:03:23.620 ancient Greek fabulist Aesop, a farmer sees a viper freezing to death. In his bountiful kindness

00:03:30.800 and feeling great pity toward the dying reptile, he places it in his coat to allow it to warm up.

00:03:39.240 once the snake recovers, it bites the farmer. His beneficence did not save him from the snake's

00:03:47.180 nature. Kindness, generosity, compassion, and empathy must be strategically offered.

00:03:54.860 In a contemporary manifestation of this fable, a South African farmer named Marius Ells had

00:04:02.720 rescued a young hippopotamus and raised it on his farm else dismissed the safety concerns of having

00:04:09.660 a personal relationship with such a dangerous animal instead he argued that the young hippo

00:04:15.760 was akin to a son to him well the quote son ended up killing his adoptive dad well as many of you

00:04:26.480 know and has as has led to a justifiable furor from many many people uh Zoran Mamdani Mamdani

00:04:37.000 the current mayor of New York City uh made an address on the 250th anniversary of the United

00:04:46.100 States sitting on I think it's the George Washington desk or right and instead of posting

00:04:53.540 something that said let me i'm going to read to you what i posted today on x

00:05:01.900 happy 250th birthday to the greatest nation of all time my family is so proud and grateful

00:05:10.180 to be moving to the u.s may the next 250 years be even better than the first 250 years and this is

00:05:17.740 why i will be holding a distinguished visiting professorship at the university of mississippi

00:05:22.960 at the Declaration of Independence Center for the Study of American Freedom

00:05:28.060 because I have internalized, I exemplified those values of American freedom.

00:05:36.280 I am thankful and grateful that I will be in the United States living there,

00:05:43.000 participating in American exceptionalism.

00:05:45.220 Well, Zoran Mamdani, you can go and watch the clip.

00:05:49.200 it is so astoundingly offensive and insulting he is basically rubbing your nose in it he's saying

00:05:57.840 i'm here i'm the scorpion you thought when you let me in to ride your back naive frog across the

00:06:08.720 river please please let me in i love you and then once i come in all i do all day long is take

00:06:17.760 positions that are antithetical to capitalism, to individual liberty, to every single foundational

00:06:26.240 ethos that defines the United States. He exemplifies the antithesis of that, but yet

00:06:33.220 because of the United States, forgive me for saying in this case suicidal empathy,

00:06:39.360 he now runs the largest city in the united states that defines capitalism that that historically has

00:06:50.420 been the center of jewish life outside of israel and yet he's not doesn't show gratitude he he

00:07:01.400 became a citizen in 2018 his dad is a professor i think at columbia university who spews

00:07:08.580 endless anti-american anti-this and anti-israel and anti-colonialism and anti-capitalism and

00:07:16.600 anti-everything that makes the united states wonderful

00:07:20.640 immigration policy is akin to the scorpion and the frog people stand there and go don't worry

00:07:31.680 I love you I just want to be part of you and then once I come in and I sting you

00:07:38.740 hey it's in my nature to do so so if you wish for our descendants to be experiencing the magic

00:07:50.220 the majesty of the American experience in 250 years we better eradicate all of the parasitic

00:08:00.380 ideas that have led to suicidal empathy, redress those issues, implement the autocorrective

00:08:08.880 procedures in every possible way that they need to be implemented so that the same reality that

00:08:17.120 the founders of the United States fought for, we can replicate those ideals for the next 250 years.

00:08:25.960 happy birthday united states please don't assume that those freedoms and liberties

00:08:31.540 are just the default values there are always endless nefarious characters that are trying

00:08:40.940 to bring down this beautiful country don't allow it on your watch take care everybody

The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad - July 04, 2026

American Exceptionalism, The Scorpion and the Frog Fable, and Zohran Mamdani (The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad_1014)

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