The Killing of Charlie Kirk and the Psychology Behind the Motive (The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad_892)
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Summary
This week we witnessed one of the most appalling acts of political violence in living memory. Charlie Kirk, a conservative commentator and free speech activist, was assassinated at the age of 31, leaving behind a grieving wife and two beautiful young kids. What was most disturbing was that Charlie wasn t advocating for violence or seeking to foster division. He was simply expressing a political opinion, a fundamental right in our society, and inviting those that disagreed to come and have a conversation.
Transcript
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Now this week we witnessed one of the most appalling acts of political violence in living
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memory. Charlie Kirk, a conservative commentator and free speech activist, was assassinated
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at the age of 31. He leaves behind a grieving wife and two beautiful young kids. What was
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most disturbing was that Charlie wasn't advocating for violence or seeking to foster division.
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It was simply expressing a political opinion, a fundamental right in our society, and it
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was inviting those that disagreed to come and have a conversation. Now if you've listened
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to the Joe Rogan Experience or Diary of a CEO podcasts, you might be familiar with the work
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of Dr Gard Saad. Dr Saad's an expert in the application of evolutionary psychology in marketing
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and in consumer behavior. Also host of the Saad Truth podcast, and he's written that wonderful
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book, The Saad Truth About Happiness, Eight Secrets for Leading the Good Life. He was a friend
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of Charlie's, and just a day back he had this to say.
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The attack on Charlie is an attack on every decent human being who lives in the supposed
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free West. Charlie lost his life because he represented the ideals of American freedom. He's a guy who
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decided in his teenage years to found an organization that has grown to be massive. In a free society,
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you're allowed to do that. He was always respectful. He was always a family man.
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I'm honored to say that Dr Gard Saad, visiting scholar at the Declaration of Independence Center
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for the Study of American Freedom at the University of Mississippi, is on the line. Thank you so much
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Thank you so much for having me. You know, a couple of hours ago, my wife showed me a post on X
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where Erica, his wife, Charlie's wife and Charlie were each talking about how they met each other
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and how their blossoming love affair happened. And as I watched this, I was filled with so much anger,
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so much regret. This is a beautiful human being who has two young children, who's only trying to
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incorporate positivity in the world. Someone says, I disagree with your views. You die. It's grotesque.
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Yeah. How do you feel on the news this morning? Because many of us here in Australia wake up to
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the news that the suspect has been arrested and indications are from all those who were present
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telling the world of the news that they've got their man. How does it feel for you? I listened to
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what you said coming in in relation to what you'd ask the suspect, but how do you feel?
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You know, I told my wife yesterday that they will know his name within 24 hours and they will catch him
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within 72 hours. And I don't think that's because I was prophetic, but I think there's been such a
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mobilization of anger, of focus. Because again, if Charlie can't be safe, then none of us can be safe.
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Because not only was he not saying anything that would ever justify such a response, I mean,
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nothing would, but he did it in a style that was so, you know, positive, right? I mean, he's smiling,
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he's playful, he's respectful. And so frankly, I was very happy that the guy was caught. And in a sense,
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I can't imagine how a 22-year-old who has all of the opportunities in the world wakes up in the
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morning and says, of all the choices I can make today, here's a great choice. Why don't I go kill
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Charlie Kirk? That's exactly what a parasitic mind looks like. Tell me about that parasitic mind. I've
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listened to you a lot over the years, and I want to get a better understanding of what my audience to
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get a better understanding of that. What is that? So I was trying to explain in that book,
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how could it be that people can hold positions that are so removed from reality, that really seem
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as though you are zombified? And so I scoured the scientific literature and discovered a field
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known as neuroparasitology. So for example, if you take a wood cricket, the wood cricket abhors water.
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It doesn't want to have anything to do with water. But when its brain is parasitized by a hairworm,
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it suddenly is willing to jump into water, commit suicide in the service of the hairworm,
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because the hairworm needs the wood cricket to jump into water in order for it to complete its
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reproductive cycle. And so that was my epiphany. So then I said, aha, I will now use that framework
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to argue that human beings could not only be parasitized by actual physical brainworms,
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but they could be parasitized by ideological brainworms, hence the parasitic mind.
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Goodness. What would you like to ask if you had the moment to spend, I won't use his name,
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I would want to get a step-by-step play of the cognitive processes that he went through in order
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for him to wake up on that fateful morning and say, of all possible choices I can make in life,
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this is the best one, right? So it's not just about saying, oh, he was radicalized and he was
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a political terrorist. I want to know, literally, the neuronal firings. What led you? If at 16 years old,
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you were a perfectly well-adjusted guy, what happened? What is the informational flow that
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you had that said, let me do this? That's what I would focus on.
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Okay. Well, I reckon we're at, and I'm sure you'd agree, well, I don't know, but I imagine you would,
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that we're at this stage in our society where, you know, you could be seen by someone as being wrong,
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but you're not just wrong, you're now wrong and you're bad. And we've had evidence of this in the
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political discourse in Australia through the week. You saw you're wrong and you're wrong and you're bad.
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Yeah, exactly. Look, all genocides, all violence stems from inability for someone to dehumanize the other.
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If I simply say that you are incorrect in your position, that doesn't give me the justification
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to eradicate you. But if I say that your wrong position implies that you are akin to Hitler,
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or you're a cockroach, well, then it allows me to squash you like the little bug that you are.
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So we've seen this throughout history. The way to compel people to take this tribe on the other side
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of the river and kill them all is to dehumanize them, to turn them into cockroaches. And so that's
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what's happened in our political discourse. We're no longer debating whether idea A or B is right.
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We're debating whether our opponents are human or not. That's a very dangerous place to be.
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So if I say something that I would imagine is not that controversial, that there are amongst humans,
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there are male and female. If I voice that, and you know, as a commentator and broadcaster
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in this country, I'm very much on guard. I mean, we have all sorts of training and information
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pumped into us. But it used to be that you'd turn the mic on and you'd say stuff. And there
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were consequences, certainly. But these days, you could say almost the obvious, like, you know,
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there are males and females, and you're all this anti-stuff and you need to be dragged off air.
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It's a difficult world to navigate, don't you think?
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Well, that's precisely why I use the neuroparasothological model, right? Because it
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zombifies you. Look, the most fundamental marker of biological reality is that we are a sexually
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reproducing species made up of two phenotypes called male and female. Until 15 minutes ago,
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the 117 billion people that had existed on Earth were perfectly understanding in that reality.
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But suddenly, we became parasitized by hairworms. And so the radio host in Sydney no longer feels
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self-assured to say women don't have penises. Again, that's not a good place for humans to be.
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Brilliant. I want to ask you about your new book, which is not the reason why I've invited you on the
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show. But I've heard you talk about and I've heard other people ask you about it.
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This is Suicidal Empathy. I think I'm right in that title. It's not available yet, as I understand it,
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but can you tell my listeners what they'll find in it?
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Sure, yes. Thank you so much for asking this question. Look, the parasitic mind was talking
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about what happens to your cognitive system, your thinking ability, if I hijack it and zombify it.
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Suicidal Empathy completes that story by saying that for me to fully zombify you,
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I also have to hijack your emotional system. So look, empathy is a beautiful virtue. As a social
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species, we need to have empathy. For you and I to have a meaningful conversation, we need to have
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theory of mind. I need to put myself in your mind or you need to put yourself in my mind. So that's good.
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But Aristotle explained to us several thousand years ago that all good things in moderation,
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things have to happen at the right time and the right place to the right target. What
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Suicidal Empathy does is it completely eradicates this. MS-13 gang members become more important than
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American vets. The rights of homeless fentanyl shooter, you know, addicts become more important
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than children playing in the playground. Illegal immigrants who don't share any of our foundational
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values suddenly are more important to bring into our shores than people that would otherwise
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assimilate. So it's empathy that is misfiring and hence it results in suicide.
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Again, I'm so sorry about the loss of your friend. Thank you so much for your time. And it's a really
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great thing for me, I have to say, God, to talk to you. It's an honour. Thank you so much.