The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense

Gad Saad grew up in Lebanon, a paradise at the time of his birth that would be converted by Islam into Hell.

The Lebanese war taught me early about the ugliness of tribalism and religious dogma. It likely informed my subsequent disdain for identity politics, as I grew up in an ecosystem where the group to which you belonged mattered more than your individuality. With that in mind, let us return to my homeland in the Middle East. I must have been nine or ten years old, in class at the Lycée des Jeunes Filles, when the teacher asked pupils to state what they wanted to be when they grew up. Typical responses were uttered uneventfully (policeman or soccer player) until one student said, “When I grow up, I want to be a Jew killer,” after which the class erupted in raucous laughter and gleeful claps. I still have the class photos from that era, and that boy’s face is forever etched in my memory.

The concept of “Mind Viruses” was popularized by Richard Dawkins in his book “The Selfish Gene,” which asserted that ideas (memes) propagate like viruses. If the ideas confer some benefit … popularity, status, promotion, etc., they will propagate. In today's universities, the Woke Mind Virus is so prevalent that if you show any signs of resistance, you will be censured, fired, or just generally consigned to being persona non grata.

While there are many innocuous and even beneficial biological viruses, we are much more familiar with the dangerous ones. Mind viruses are especially dangerous because they often cause their victims to lose their capacity to question anything outside what the virus has infected them with. Saad points to Islam, LGBTQ, BLM, DEI (which he helpfully names “DIE”), Feminism, Marxism, etc., as mind viruses being propagated through the universities/media, thus destroying Western Civilization while the infected believe the viruses to be critical to “progress,” thus justifying “cancelling” those who question the viruses.

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. Instead, one sinks into an abyss of infinite lunacy best defined by a dogged and proud departure from reality, common sense, and truth.

Since the West has increasingly lost the ability to use reason and logic, most have no sense of alarm as birth rates fall below replacement level. The strongest believers in godless random selection (survival of the fittest) blissfully fail to reproduce.

Israel has the highest birth rate in the developed world, with a Total Fertility Rate (TFR) of roughly 2.8 to 3.0 births per woman, making it the only Western country with a birth rate well above the population replacement level of 2.1. Islam has a TFR of 2.9 to 3.1. Catholics attending the Traditional Latin Mass in the U.S have a TFR of 3.6 … less dedicated Catholics align with the Western average of 1.5 - 1.6, well below the replacement rate of 2.1. Secular Humanism/Wokeness is culturally suicidal.

If you are infected with the Progressive Mind Virus, you have likely quit reading by now. As Saad puts it:

I have suggested the following Universal Trigger Warning: “Using your brain to navigate the real world should not entail a trigger warning. This course will assume that you possess the cognitive and emotional acuity of an adult. Life is your trigger warning.”

In order to immunize yourself from Mind Virus infection, or to have a chance of recovery if infected, work to find or develop a nomological network to refute what the Mind Virus is attempting to propagate. A nomological network is a conceptual framework used in psychology and the social sciences to map out how abstract theoretical concepts connect to one another and to observable, measurable variables.

Chapter 7 gives a good introduction to nomological networks. At a high level, they involve making an argument based on the coherence of data from many sources … historical, scientific, statistical, etc. From a personal perspective, it is why I read so many books … history, philosophy, theology, physics, politics, psychology, biology, etc.

One of the nomological cases he is making in the book is that Islam is a danger to Western civilization. For counter arguments AI is very helpful … “most Muslims are peaceful, therefore …”. To which I respond, most people are honest, so there is no reason to lock your car, doors, etc. Correct?

Some of his evidence;

The FBI maintains a global list of its most wanted global terrorists. Twenty-six out of the current twenty-eight members that compose this infamous group are connected to Islamic groups. Though Muslims make up roughly 25 percent of the world’s population, they comprise 92.9 percent of terrorists on the FBI list.

No doubt Ilhan Omar would point out that the FBI is racist, Islamophobic, and since I am writing this I should likely be prosecuted for hate speech!

As of July 19, 2019, there have been 35,339 Islamist terror attacks in nearly 70 countries. This is astronomically higher than all other religions combined.

Gemini says that globally, there have been more than 64,000 Islamist terrorist attacks since 2000, resulting in over 240,000 deaths. In contrast, when asked about Christian terrorist attacks … "documented global incidents linked to self-proclaimed fundamentalist Christian actors or extremist theology total around a few dozen distinct plots and attacks.”

Why do people rob banks? Because that’s where the money is. To be human is to profile. Our environment is effectively infinite, so our brain has to direct attention based on assumptions. Minorities tend to be clustered in high-crime areas of cities. We will ignore the “why,” but nearly all of us avoid high-crime areas of cities, especially at night.

Back in 1993, a rabid white racist uttered the following infamous words: “There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery. Then (I) look around and see someone white and feel relieved.” Oh no wait, that was no Grand Wizard of the KKK. It was none other than African American activist Jesse Jackson. Does the Reverend Jackson suffer from internalized bigotry against his own race? Or, perhaps he recognizes race-based patterns of criminality based on aggregate data and responds accordingly.

The last chapter of Saad's book encourages standing up, being labeled with all sorts of nasty names, losing friends, family, maybe your job or even being targeted for violence, possibly death.

He didn’t quote Pastor Martin Niemoller, so I will.

First they came for the Communists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Communist Then they came for the Socialists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Socialist Then they came for the trade unionists And I did not speak out Because I was not a trade unionist Then they came for the Jews And I did not speak out Because I was not a Jew Then they came for me And there was no one left To speak out for me

Substack.