The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad - The Killing of Charlie Kirk and the Psychology Behind the Motive (The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad_892)

00:00:00.000 Now this week we witnessed one of the most appalling acts of political violence in living

00:00:04.820 memory. Charlie Kirk, a conservative commentator and free speech activist, was assassinated

00:00:11.100 at the age of 31. He leaves behind a grieving wife and two beautiful young kids. What was

00:00:18.280 most disturbing was that Charlie wasn't advocating for violence or seeking to foster division.

00:00:23.920 It was simply expressing a political opinion, a fundamental right in our society, and it

00:00:30.980 was inviting those that disagreed to come and have a conversation. Now if you've listened

00:00:36.420 to the Joe Rogan Experience or Diary of a CEO podcasts, you might be familiar with the work

00:00:41.980 of Dr Gard Saad. Dr Saad's an expert in the application of evolutionary psychology in marketing

00:00:48.540 and in consumer behavior. Also host of the Saad Truth podcast, and he's written that wonderful

00:00:55.900 book, The Saad Truth About Happiness, Eight Secrets for Leading the Good Life. He was a friend

00:01:01.140 of Charlie's, and just a day back he had this to say.

00:01:04.480 The attack on Charlie is an attack on every decent human being who lives in the supposed

00:01:15.280 free West. Charlie lost his life because he represented the ideals of American freedom. He's a guy who

00:01:26.280 decided in his teenage years to found an organization that has grown to be massive. In a free society,

00:01:35.380 you're allowed to do that. He was always respectful. He was always a family man.

00:01:41.320 I'm honored to say that Dr Gard Saad, visiting scholar at the Declaration of Independence Center

00:01:46.880 for the Study of American Freedom at the University of Mississippi, is on the line. Thank you so much

00:01:53.440 for your time, Doctor.

00:01:54.820 Thank you so much for having me. You know, a couple of hours ago, my wife showed me a post on X

00:02:03.080 where Erica, his wife, Charlie's wife and Charlie were each talking about how they met each other

00:02:11.300 and how their blossoming love affair happened. And as I watched this, I was filled with so much anger,

00:02:18.320 so much regret. This is a beautiful human being who has two young children, who's only trying to

00:02:25.160 incorporate positivity in the world. Someone says, I disagree with your views. You die. It's grotesque.

00:02:32.460 Yeah. How do you feel on the news this morning? Because many of us here in Australia wake up to

00:02:37.860 the news that the suspect has been arrested and indications are from all those who were present

00:02:43.920 telling the world of the news that they've got their man. How does it feel for you? I listened to

00:02:51.740 what you said coming in in relation to what you'd ask the suspect, but how do you feel?

00:02:56.820 You know, I told my wife yesterday that they will know his name within 24 hours and they will catch him

00:03:06.480 within 72 hours. And I don't think that's because I was prophetic, but I think there's been such a

00:03:11.620 mobilization of anger, of focus. Because again, if Charlie can't be safe, then none of us can be safe.

00:03:20.840 Because not only was he not saying anything that would ever justify such a response, I mean,

00:03:26.980 nothing would, but he did it in a style that was so, you know, positive, right? I mean, he's smiling,

00:03:34.220 he's playful, he's respectful. And so frankly, I was very happy that the guy was caught. And in a sense,

00:03:41.780 I can't imagine how a 22-year-old who has all of the opportunities in the world wakes up in the

00:03:48.020 morning and says, of all the choices I can make today, here's a great choice. Why don't I go kill 0.99

00:03:54.140 Charlie Kirk? That's exactly what a parasitic mind looks like. Tell me about that parasitic mind. I've 1.00

00:04:00.620 listened to you a lot over the years, and I want to get a better understanding of what my audience to

00:04:05.680 get a better understanding of that. What is that? So I was trying to explain in that book,

00:04:12.320 how could it be that people can hold positions that are so removed from reality, that really seem

00:04:20.220 as though you are zombified? And so I scoured the scientific literature and discovered a field

00:04:26.080 known as neuroparasitology. So for example, if you take a wood cricket, the wood cricket abhors water.

00:04:33.840 It doesn't want to have anything to do with water. But when its brain is parasitized by a hairworm,

00:04:39.160 it suddenly is willing to jump into water, commit suicide in the service of the hairworm,

00:04:45.920 because the hairworm needs the wood cricket to jump into water in order for it to complete its

00:04:51.160 reproductive cycle. And so that was my epiphany. So then I said, aha, I will now use that framework

00:04:57.520 to argue that human beings could not only be parasitized by actual physical brainworms, 0.69

00:05:04.240 but they could be parasitized by ideological brainworms, hence the parasitic mind. 0.97

00:05:09.900 Goodness. What would you like to ask if you had the moment to spend, I won't use his name,

00:05:15.740 but what would you like to ask him?

00:05:18.980 I would want to get a step-by-step play of the cognitive processes that he went through in order

00:05:28.580 for him to wake up on that fateful morning and say, of all possible choices I can make in life,

00:05:35.780 this is the best one, right? So it's not just about saying, oh, he was radicalized and he was

00:05:41.460 a political terrorist. I want to know, literally, the neuronal firings. What led you? If at 16 years old,

00:05:50.340 you were a perfectly well-adjusted guy, what happened? What is the informational flow that

00:05:58.040 you had that said, let me do this? That's what I would focus on.

00:06:02.120 Okay. Well, I reckon we're at, and I'm sure you'd agree, well, I don't know, but I imagine you would,

00:06:07.160 that we're at this stage in our society where, you know, you could be seen by someone as being wrong,

00:06:13.560 but you're not just wrong, you're now wrong and you're bad. And we've had evidence of this in the 0.72

00:06:19.960 political discourse in Australia through the week. You saw you're wrong and you're wrong and you're bad.

00:06:25.400 How did we get here?

00:06:27.960 Yeah, exactly. Look, all genocides, all violence stems from inability for someone to dehumanize the other.

00:06:38.120 If I simply say that you are incorrect in your position, that doesn't give me the justification

00:06:45.440 to eradicate you. But if I say that your wrong position implies that you are akin to Hitler,

00:06:52.380 or you're a cockroach, well, then it allows me to squash you like the little bug that you are. 1.00

00:06:57.980 So we've seen this throughout history. The way to compel people to take this tribe on the other side 1.00

00:07:05.080 of the river and kill them all is to dehumanize them, to turn them into cockroaches. And so that's 1.00

00:07:10.720 what's happened in our political discourse. We're no longer debating whether idea A or B is right.

00:07:16.440 We're debating whether our opponents are human or not. That's a very dangerous place to be.

00:07:21.980 So if I say something that I would imagine is not that controversial, that there are amongst humans,

00:07:29.600 there are male and female. If I voice that, and you know, as a commentator and broadcaster

00:07:36.160 in this country, I'm very much on guard. I mean, we have all sorts of training and information

00:07:41.880 pumped into us. But it used to be that you'd turn the mic on and you'd say stuff. And there

00:07:47.280 were consequences, certainly. But these days, you could say almost the obvious, like, you know,

00:07:53.020 there are males and females, and you're all this anti-stuff and you need to be dragged off air.

00:07:59.540 It's a difficult world to navigate, don't you think?

00:08:02.880 Well, that's precisely why I use the neuroparasothological model, right? Because it 0.72

00:08:08.200 zombifies you. Look, the most fundamental marker of biological reality is that we are a sexually

00:08:14.960 reproducing species made up of two phenotypes called male and female. Until 15 minutes ago,

00:08:21.440 the 117 billion people that had existed on Earth were perfectly understanding in that reality.

00:08:28.640 But suddenly, we became parasitized by hairworms. And so the radio host in Sydney no longer feels

00:08:35.440 self-assured to say women don't have penises. Again, that's not a good place for humans to be. 1.00

00:08:41.960 Brilliant. I want to ask you about your new book, which is not the reason why I've invited you on the

00:08:47.020 show. But I've heard you talk about and I've heard other people ask you about it.

00:08:51.840 This is Suicidal Empathy. I think I'm right in that title. It's not available yet, as I understand it,

00:08:58.280 but can you tell my listeners what they'll find in it?

00:09:02.200 Sure, yes. Thank you so much for asking this question. Look, the parasitic mind was talking

00:09:07.180 about what happens to your cognitive system, your thinking ability, if I hijack it and zombify it. 0.86

00:09:13.780 Suicidal Empathy completes that story by saying that for me to fully zombify you,

00:09:19.180 I also have to hijack your emotional system. So look, empathy is a beautiful virtue. As a social

00:09:26.800 species, we need to have empathy. For you and I to have a meaningful conversation, we need to have

00:09:32.280 theory of mind. I need to put myself in your mind or you need to put yourself in my mind. So that's good.

00:09:37.420 But Aristotle explained to us several thousand years ago that all good things in moderation,

00:09:44.180 things have to happen at the right time and the right place to the right target. What

00:09:48.840 Suicidal Empathy does is it completely eradicates this. MS-13 gang members become more important than

00:09:55.940 American vets. The rights of homeless fentanyl shooter, you know, addicts become more important

00:10:03.740 than children playing in the playground. Illegal immigrants who don't share any of our foundational 1.00

00:10:10.660 values suddenly are more important to bring into our shores than people that would otherwise

00:10:17.200 assimilate. So it's empathy that is misfiring and hence it results in suicide.

00:10:23.440 Again, I'm so sorry about the loss of your friend. Thank you so much for your time. And it's a really

00:10:31.340 great thing for me, I have to say, God, to talk to you. It's an honour. Thank you so much.

00:10:36.920 Thank you so much. Take care. Cheers.

The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad - October 03, 2025

The Killing of Charlie Kirk and the Psychology Behind the Motive (The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad_892)

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