Whose Mind is Infected by Parasites?
Special assignment: Before reading The Parasitic Mind by Gad Saad, answer these questions: What do I believe about “modern ideologies”? Why do I believe what I currently do? What are my current convictions and most deeply held beliefs and understandings based upon and why? Then do an inspectional reading. How have my beliefs been affirmed by the readings? How were they challenged and why?
First, I wanted to make sure I knew exactly what an “ideology” is. Merriam Webster helped with that:
a: a manner or the content of thinking characteristic of an individual, group, or culture
b: the integrated assertions, theories and aims that constitute a sociopolitical program
c: a systematic body of concepts especially about human life or culture [1]
Then I tried to find out what, specifically, a “modern ideology” is. All I could come up with were “political ideologies.” Oh… OK. Now I see where this is going.
So I turned to Wikipedia (among other sources) to get a simple list of ideologies that I could even consider beyond Left or Right, Liberal or Conservative. What else is there?
But it wasn’t that simple. Wikipedia states, “An ideology is a collection of ideas. Typically, each ideology contains certain ideas on what it considers to be the best form of government (eg, autocracy or democracy) and the best economic system (eg, capitalism or socialism).” [2]
But it gets confusing after that. “The same word is sometimes used to identify both an ideology and one of its main ideas. For instance, socialism may refer to an economic system, or it may refer to an ideology that supports that economic system.” And even more confusing because “the same term may also refer to multiple ideologies…”
Then this all-knowing resource clears everything up when it states, “Political ideology is a term fraught with problems, having been called ‘the most elusive concept in the whole of social science.’”
No wonder I was uncertain where to begin.
Deeply Held Beliefs and Convictions
So let’s keep it simple (sort of). Using the Wikipedia list that follows their confusing explanation, it seems to me that modern political ideologies seem to swing on a pendulum. When they go too far in one direction, they end up swinging back in the other direction. I say this because I can see the pendulum swinging between “left” and “right” even within the last one hundred years.
My own ideologies were seeded early on. I grew up in a Republican town in northern NJ, in a home where we almost never talked about politics. When I got to college, a small, liberal arts women’s college, I discovered that there are many ways to look at the core economic and societal issues that affect us all.
Over time, as a young adult, through to today, I have developed my own values and beliefs. The most important things to me include: providing opportunities for everyone; making sure that no one goes without; lifting people up when they are down; showing hospitality, compassion, and empathy, just as Jesus taught us and showed us; and giving people the benefit of the doubt, at least at first. Are those ideologies? I think of them more as core values.
These values and beliefs weren’t only based on what I learned in church, though that did play a big role. I also saw them lived out in my parents’ daily lives. My dad had a very good job in finance in New York City, and I was aware that my parents were (and still are) generous with their money.
They were (and still are) also generous with their time. My mother, in particular, has always had the gift of hospitality. While I was growing up, we not only opened our home to 25 foster infants over 10 years, but we also hosted three year-long exchange students from Austria, Portugal, and Germany. And numerous other short-term international students as well.
After an Inspectional Reading
I have to say it’s a good thing this was an inspectional reading of The Parasitic Mind by Gad Saad. I got through fewer than 40 pages and kept wanting to put it down. I found the author arrogant, snide, and irritating. He would probably tell me I’m one of those loony leftists. Well, fine, I’ll take that label if he’s willing to take “arrogant, snide, and irritating.” Also, inconsistent.
Saad shallowly complains that all progressives and Democrats are deluded fools. He clearly demonstrates his impatience with that ideology while he commits the same offense that he condemns.
However, I believe Saad is correct that truth is missing from much of our social discourse. I also think he’s correct when he writes, “The quest for truth should always supersede one’s ego-defensive desire to be proven right. This is not an easy task because for most people it is difficult to admit to being wrong.” [3] This is confirmation bias; humans will do anything—including bald-faced lies—to avoid the threatening and scary feeling of being wrong.
And I also agree that people make decisions using both logic and feelings. But we also use heuristics, the mental shortcuts that make things easier to remember and understand, while using less energy for the brain. Unfortunately, that often leads us to make decisions that aren’t very helpful. Sadly, critical thinking—which could solve the short-cut problem—is missing from our social discourse as well. I think this is where logic meets emotions, and where Saad misses something important.
Saad talks about Trump in the first election. He was “bewildered at the mass psychogenic hysteria that engulfed” so many people when Trump won the 2015 election. The book section is sarcastically titled, “Donald Trump Is Going to End the World.” [4] Saad’s criticism of people’s concerns rings hollow today, as DT really is running the entire world into disaster in ways almost no one could have anticipated in 2015.
Saad’s views are also confusing because he insists on free speech as a core right, yet DT is, and always has been, intolerant of opposition or criticism. He stirs up hatred and separates people by slicing through truth with the sword of malevolent fiction. This isn’t new. If you’re the kind of person who values what DT says he values, then this is an example where affect must trump seeming logic (forgive the unintended pun) because DT has proven himself to be a bad person who rarely does what he says he’ll do unless there’s something in it for him. More critical thinking would likely have led to more people seeing DT for the existential threat he is.
I do agree with Saad that free speech is an absolutely critical element in a free society. For instance, he states that holocaust deniers “constitute an affront to human decency” because they “reject the well-documented historical fact that millions of Jews were systematically exterminated.” [5]
But I also agree that they have a right to free speech. I just wish there were a way to go back in time to their childhoods and fix the wrongs that made them so angry and bitter. Then they wouldn’t need to spew such venom. Somehow, I think that desire to make life better and easier for children who don’t have equal opportunities probably doesn’t always make logical sense to Saad.
In short, perhaps I could have taken what Saad wanted to share more seriously if he had presented it in a more diplomatic and compassionate way.
But in his acerbic criticisms of postmodernism, “radical” feminism, political correctness, and other parasitic ills, he comes across as angry and intolerant himself, the very diseases of which he is most critical.
1 – Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, s.v. “ideology,” accessed April 16, 2025, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ideology.
2 – Wikipedia contributors, “List of political ideologies,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_political_ideologies&oldid=1285631998 (accessed April 16, 2025).
3 – Gad Saad, The Parasitic Mind; How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense (New York: Regnery, 2020), 12.
4 – Saad, 30.
5 – Saad, 49.
About the Author
Debbie Owen
Deborah C. Owen is an experienced spiritual director, Neuro-based Enneagram executive and life coach, disciple maker, professional writer, senior librarian, and long-time church Music Director and lay leader. She has earned the award of National Board Certification for teaching excellence, and a podcasting award, and is pursuing a Doctor of Leadership degree through Portland Seminary at George Fox University. She lives in the backwoods of Maine with her husband and flat-coated retriever. She spends as much time as she can with their 3 grown children, daughter-in-law, and 2 small grandchildren. Find her online at InsideOutMinistries.info.5 responses to “Whose Mind is Infected by Parasites?”
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Hi Debbie,
I hear you. Thank you for your post.
If are invited to debate with Saad, what would be your first question to him?
(Now I think about, I am not sure if you would accept the invitation, but let’s say you did). 🙂 🙂
Hi Debbie, I, too, struggled to filter out Saad’s positive messages through the sarcasm and arrogance. As a writer, how would you have advised Saad to write in a way that was not so off-putting to you, but still kept the humor in his book (as he seemed to value this) and the message?
Hi Debbie, I think many of us wrestled with Saad’s tone—I know I did. It reminded me a bit of how I felt reading Furedi, though this book hit even harder in that regard. As for your comments about DT… I’m not sure what you’re talking about—didn’t the country enter its Golden Age the day DT was inaugurated? (That’s my attempt at channeling a little Saad-style sarcasm.)
I know you’re an avid reader, and on a recent long flight, I finally got around to reading Jonathan Haidt’s “The Righteous Mind.” One thought that stuck with me was his observation (paraphrased here) that we’re all like politicians—constantly justifying our beliefs and trying to win others to our side, often more concerned with loyalty than with truth. In other words, we tend to defend our tribe rather than genuinely pursue truth. I can’t help but see that dynamic playing out all around us today.
In your pursuit of truth, how do you find a balance between reason and emotion within today’s climate of uncertainty?
Debbie,
I too found myself struggling with the amount of support the author kept offering Trump. He laughed about the warning many people offered in his first term as if they weren’t valid and yet as we see, those of us who spoke out years ago, feel justified in our warnings even as we lament the direction we are going. Though I often disagreed with Saad, I found that I was relieved to see him speaking out in ways that many find they can’t do. I appreciate his committment to free speech.
Debbie, thanks for your post and calling out his focus on DT. I don’t really understand his broad support for Trump.
You wrote, “In short, perhaps I could have taken what Saad wanted to share more seriously if he had presented it in a more diplomatic and compassionate way.”
I completely agree, because I had the same reaction. I have a couple of questions. Pick whichever one you want to answer.
How could he deliver the same message with diplomacy and compassion?
How might our bias toward diplomacy and compassion be a hindrance to our pursuit of truth?