We are left wondering what has led to the disturbing rise of political violence, and why killers and criminals are celebrated by some for their horrific acts. In this episode, Drs. Kurt and Saad discuss what they believe to be the root cause of this phenomenon.
00:00:00.000Kurt, we are left wondering what has led to the disturbing rise of political violence and why killers and criminals are celebrated by some for their horrific acts.
00:00:09.500Joining me now is a visiting scholar at the Declaration of Independence Center for the study of academic freedom at the University of Mississippi, God Saad.
00:00:18.300And God, you are an evolutionary behavioral scientist.
00:00:22.860So what makes someone what I will refer to as so ideologically narcissistic?
00:00:29.100It's all about them and their beliefs, that they celebrate the death of a young father and husband.
00:00:36.820Yeah, it's very disheartening to see it on social media.
00:00:41.360Look, for a lot of people, their reasoning capacity did not evolve to seek truth, but rather to win arguments.
00:00:48.520So it becomes a form of overgiastic tribalism where it doesn't matter how correct the other side might be.
00:00:57.220My mind has evolved to only win arguments rather than seeking truth.
00:01:02.780The other thing I would say is that, regrettably, freedom of speech, which should be a deontological principle, meaning it's an absolute.
00:01:10.520You don't say, I believe in freedom of speech as long as it doesn't hurt someone's feelings.
00:01:16.100But regrettably, many people have internalized that consequentialist defense.
00:01:21.620And so they always find the reason why it is justified, in this case, to kill someone with whom we disagree.
00:01:27.700We're going to show our audience right now the notable acts of political violence here in the U.S. are politically motivated.
00:01:35.340And what we're showing the audience is literally just in the last three-plus years.
00:01:39.380This isn't like over the course of decades.
00:01:41.240So does the celebration of these attacks online almost normalize them in the minds of the sick individuals that are celebrating, thereby encouraging the increased frequency in which we see these attacks?
00:02:22.060Does this get worse before it gets better or can we put the genie back in the bottle?
00:02:38.320Well, I pray to God that this terrible tragedy of Charlie Kirk reignites a sense of the recognition of American exceptionalism.
00:02:50.300And it takes a Canadian to remind Americans what a true bastion among nations America is.
00:02:57.580So I'd like to be optimistic this early morning and say that hopefully this really wakes people up.
00:03:02.480And I know we keep beating this point to death here, but we hope it is a turning point.
00:03:08.340This is the name of Charlie Kirk's organization that we use this moment to stop our nonsense and move forward as a nation and not celebrate what really is a sick act by a sick person.