Suicidal Empathy: Dying to Be Kind

by Gad Saad

The bestselling author of The Parasitic Mind shows why empathy in politics leads to civilizational collapse. What happens when a society elevates victimhood to a virtue and decides that punishment is cruel? You get the disease Dr. Gad Saad calls suicidal empathy. And the West may be terminally infected. In his new book, Suicidal Empathy, Saad unleashes a blistering critique of maladaptively irrational altruism that has gripped our culture. This mind parasite hijacked the empathy module of our progressive elite, leading to a catastrophic miscalibration of moral priorities. The results are from coddling violent criminals to protecting rapists to branding self-defense as toxic behavior. We are witnessing a civilization in rapid decline. Lunatic policies are instituted because we prioritize the feelings of ostensibly marginalized groups over The Truth, criminals over victims, and squatters over homeowners. This is not humane; it’s an active dismantling of the pillars that keep us safe and free. This crisis of empathy creates a horrifying system of inverse morality where the strong and successful are demonized, and the destructive are celebrated. Just look at the insane inversions we tolerate we prefer illegal migrants over our own legal citizens and veterans, permit drug addicts to threaten children’s safety in parks, and elevate transgender 'women' above biological women in sports and safe spaces. Common sense is dying in a deluge of misguided compassion. Suicidal Empathy is your wake-up call. Stop ignoring your survival instincts in the name of political correctness. This isn't just misguided policy; it is the ultimate expression of a culture actively choosing its own demise.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Psychology, Philosophy, History, Sociology, Social Issues

256 pages, Hardcover

Published May 12, 2026

About the author

Dr. Gad Saad is Professor of Marketing, holder of the Concordia University Research Chair in Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences and Darwinian Consumption, and advisory fellow at the Center for Inquiry. He was an Associate Editor of Evolutionary Psychology (2012-2015) and of Customer Needs and Solutions (2014- ). He has held Visiting Associate Professorships at Cornell University, Dartmouth College, and the University of California-Irvine. Dr. Saad was inducted into the Who’s Who of Canadian Business in 2002. He was listed as one of the “hot” professors of Concordia University in both the 2001 and 2002 Maclean’s reports on Canadian universities. Dr. Saad received the JMSB Faculty’s Distinguished Teaching Award in June 2000. He is the recipient of the 2014 Darwinism Applied Award granted by the Applied Evolutionary Psychology Society and co-recipient of the 2015 President's Media Outreach Award-Research Communicator (International). His research and teaching interests include evolutionary psychology, consumer behavior, and psychology of decision making.

Professor Saad’s trade book, The Consuming Instinct: What Juicy Burgers, Ferraris, Pornography, and Gift Giving Reveal About Human Nature (Prometheus Books), was released in June 2011, and has since been translated to Korean and Turkish. His 2007 book, The Evolutionary Bases of Consumption (Lawrence Erlbaum) is the first academic book to demonstrate the Darwinian roots of a wide range of consumption phenomena. His edited book, Evolutionary Psychology in the Business Sciences, was also released in 2011 (Springer), as was his special issue on the futures of evolutionary psychology published in Futures (Elsevier).

He has over 75 scientific publications covering a wide range of disciplines including in marketing, consumer behavior, psychology, economics, evolutionary theory, medicine, and bibliometrics. A sample of outlets wherein his publications have appeared include Journal of Marketing Research; Journal of Consumer Psychology; Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes; Journal of Behavioral Decision Making; Evolution and Human Behavior; Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Economics; Marketing Theory; Journal of Social Psychology; Personality and Individual Differences; Managerial and Decision Economics; Journal of Bioeconomics; Applied Economics Letters; Journal of Business Research; Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences; Psychology & Marketing; Journal of Consumer Marketing; Medical Hypotheses; Scientometrics; and Futures. His work has been presented at 170 leading academic conferences, research centers, and universities around the world.

Dr. Saad has supervised or served on the committee of numerous Master’s and Doctoral students, as well as one post-doc. He has been awarded several research grants (both internal as well as governmental). Using his own grant money, he created an in-house behavioral marketing lab. He serves/has served on numerous editorial boards including Journal of Marketing Research; Journal of Consumer Psychology; Psychology & Marketing; Journal of Business Research; Journal of Social Psychology; Evolutionary Psychology; Open Behavioral Science Journal; Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Economics; Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology/Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences; The Evolutionary Review; and Frontiers of Evolutionary Psychology; and is an associate member of Behavioral and Brain Sciences. He has consulted for numerous firms, and his work has been featured in close to 500 media outlets including on television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and blogs. He has been designated Concordia's Newsmaker of the Week five years in a row (2011-2015).

Dr. Saad holds a PhD (Major: Marketing; Minors in Cognitive Studies and Statistics) and an MS from Cornell University, and an MBA (Specialization: Marketing; Mini-Thesis: Operations Research) and a BSc (Mathematics and Computer Science) both from McGill Uni

Reviews

[Jay Cresva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely potent, high-octane rage fuel.
Orgiastically cathartic.
Chilling.
Sure to be hated by 1) White liberal women 2) Radical Islamists


They are coming, and they will conquer the west through the wombs of your women and you might just offer them up in fears of being labelled a racist.


This is an extremely difficult read/listen. Not because it's complicated, filled with difficult academic jargon, but because of the subject matter it covers. It's filled with sarcasm and dry humor, reads like pop-psychology book, sure, but you can't laugh because it's no laughing matter. Each example of suicidal empathy and how it manifests itself hits you like whip on raw flesh; each lash enrages you.

Probably not for everyone. White liberal women won't touch this book because they will never be open minded enough. Radical Islamists won't touch this book, this is written by a Jew, it's more haram than a slab of delicious bacon, surely. Leaving Gad preaching to the choir, a Saad truth.

As a person who was born in an 'religion of peace'-country, but as a Christian, I cry for the west and the cancer it self-inflicted with. it starts with a self-assuring vowel, but ends with (almost) government sanctioned jew hunts (synagogue shootings, with slap-on-the-wrist punishments), grooming of the young (Pakistani grooming gangs, grooming white young girls in UK), and rape of innocents (rape of Europeans, they are 'Kaffir' and thus literal f-holes).
It is societal cancer, and always comes as stage IV, there is no 'moderate' or stage I, II, III..it skips all stage to stage Iv terminal cancer; they forever complicit, never condemning crimes committed in the names of their God, all participating in destruction of the host..which are mainly western Christian nations (is that odd?).



The most pathological thing about suicidal empathy for these people are pathological acceptance of their own cognitive dissonance; even rape victim starts to defend their rapists, in this bizarre, twilight-zone of a dimension where suicidal altruism is the religion.
One example that stuck with me, and will probably forever haunt me is BLM advocate in an African country getting raped repeatedly in a balcony, while she tries to convince her rapist that she's a specialist in Malcolm X and the black struggle, only to be slapped as he enters her repeatedly. She then blames the rape as the fault of white colonization instead, saying she's glad to have had this experience.

It's nothing short of being infected with those parasitic brain-eating Ophiocordyceps fungi that hijack the nervous systems of insects, primarily ants, forcing them to behave like zombies to spread spores to spread more of themselves.

The book goes into detail of how suicidal empathy normalizes crime, radicalism, over-taxation, with examples from all corners of the world. Canada and Justin Trudeau gets special mentions because Canada is a literal example of what suicidal empathy does to a nation. Only in Canada you find these:



In a suicidal empathetic Canada - it is totally normal to offer kids pamphlets on how to snort crack cocaine..

This book does not really offer any hope, because there probably aren't any for the west. It is dying a slow, sure death.

[Eri Bastos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great book from Gad Saad.

Following him on X gave me a pretty good idea of what to expect, and I was not disappointed. The book is full of real-life examples, many of them recent enough to still be fresh in my memory.

As an immigrant to Canada, like the author, I found parts of the book painful to read. Not because I disagreed with him, but because I kept nodding along as he described the civilizationally suicidal path our country seems determined to follow.

The delusions currently gripping Western society are already producing disastrous consequences. I will leave the reader to go through the book and draw their own conclusions.

My only frustration is that, like his previous book and others with similar warnings, it sometimes feels like preaching to the choir. The people who most need to read this book are almost certainly the least likely to pick it up.

[Matthías Páll · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book on important topics, especially that we must not stop at naive first-order thinking, but dive into the knock-on effect of every decision.

Written in an academic and sarcastic style, this book had me laughing out loud at times. Recommended to anyone interested in how crazy the zeitgeist has become.

[Tyler · Rating 1 out of 5]

Here is the prompt.

Chatgpt write a nonfiction book titled Sucidal Empathy structured around a single central thesis: that a specific well-intentioned cultural or intellectual trend driven by misplaced compassion, groupthink, or ideological capture is actively undermining human flourishing, free inquiry, or civilizational resilience.

The book should:
Open with a compelling personal story or observation that frames the problem
Define the central concept clearly and show how it manifests across institutions (academia, media, government, medicine)
Use evolutionary psychology and behavioral science to explain why humans are susceptible to this kind of thinking
Provide real-world case studies where the trend caused measurable harm
Anticipate and steelman counterarguments, then dismantle them
Write in a tone that is serious but readable occasionally sardonic, never dry

End with a false call to intellectual courage and epistemic honesty

Target audience: Politically conservative and libertarian readers who are skeptical of progressive ideology, concerned about free speech and institutional overreach, and frustrated with what they see as ideological capture of media, academia, and government. Fans of podcasts like The Joe Rogan Experience or thinkers like Elon Musk who value contrarian, unfiltered takes on culture and politics.

Aim for 250–300 pages across 10–12 chapters

[Maher Razouk · Rating 5 out of 5]

في فيلم "صمت الحملان" تجسد جودي فوستر دور متدربة في مكتب التحقيقات الفيدرالي (FBI)، حيث تطلب العون من طبيب نفسي وسجين في آن واحد، وهو القاتل المتسلسل الشهير الدكتور هانيبال ليكتر (أداء أنتوني هوبكنز)، وذلك لتعقب قاتل متسلسل آخر طليق يُدعى "بافالو بيل" (أداء تيد ليفين).
وفي أحد أكثر مشاهد الفيلم رسوخاً في الذاكرة، يختطف "بافالو بيل" امرأة بعد التظاهر بأنه يعاني من إعاقة حركية بسبب جبيرة في ذراعه، مدعياً حاجته للمساعدة في رفع أريكة إلى شاحنته. نجح القاتل في ذلك من خلال العزف على أوتار التعاطف لدى ضحيته المستهدفة، رغم أن غريزة البقاء لديها كانت تهمس لها بأن ثمة أمراً مريباً. هذه الحيلة تحديداً—استغلال التعاطف—كان يعتمد عليها القاتل المتسلسل الحقيقي "تيد بندي" لاستدراج النساء إلى سيارته؛ فالشخصيات السيكوباتية تدرك تماماً كيف تطوع هذا الانحراف في منظومة التعاطف البشري لمصالحها.

وبناءً عليه، وبدلاً من المقولة الشائعة "القتل بلطف"، فإن السيكوباتيين الساديين "يقتلون عبر اللطف"، مستغلين نزعتنا الفطرية نحو التعاطف كسلاح ضدنا.
وفي هذا السياق، يشير عالمَا الأنثروبولوجيا الدنماركيان "نيلز بوباندت" و"راني ويلرسليف" إلى أن للتعاطف وجهاً آخر بائساً وأكثر قتامة: "إن التوجه السائد في الدراسات الأكاديمية للتعاطف بمختلف تخصصاتها كان—ولا يزال—ينظر إليه ليس كملكة بشرية فحسب، بل كفضيلة إنسانية أيضاً. ونتيجة لذلك، جرى تأطيره باعتباره قيمة خيرية مطلقة ترتبط بالرعاية، والإيثار، والروابط الاجتماعية، كونه النقيض التام للخداع والعدوان والنزاع. بيد أن هذا الافتراض يغفل تماماً تلك الجوانب من الحياة الاجتماعية التي يتشابك فيها التعاطف مع الخداع والعنف، بل ويتحول فيها أحياناً إلى ركيزة أساسية لهما".
والجدير بالذكر أن البشر ليسوا الكائنات الوحيدة التي تقع في حبائل الخطر بسبب تعاطفها؛ فحيتان العنبر مثلاً، عندما تحاول حماية فرد مصاب من قطيعها، تتخذ تشكيلاً دفاعياً دائرياً يُعرف بـ "تشكيل مارجريت"، وهو ما يسهل على صيادي الحيتان محاصرة القطيع بأكمله وإبادته. وهكذا، يُستغل تعاطف الحيتان الفطري ليكون سبب حتفها.
.
Gad Saad
Suicidal Empathy
Translated By #Maher_Razouk

[Bill Powers · Rating 4 out of 5]

• The tsunami of empathetic insanity is drowning the West.

• The DIE cult has taken over academia along with countless other industries, all of which should be strictly guided by meritocracy (e.g., surgeons or airplane pilots).

• Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, which laid the groundwork for the American welfare state, and Joseph Stalin’s Soviet propaganda both relied heavily on mass empathy appeals. How ironic that the two great adversaries of the eventual Cold War each recognized the effectiveness of empathy-based appeals to justify their respective societal visions.

• “Sharing is caring” is a very nice motto when you are in grade one, but it is less so when more than 50 percent of your earnings are taxed by the socialist welfare state.

• Given that women score higher on empathy than men, they are more likely to prefer socialism over capitalism,

• Taxation is theft, purely and simply, even though it is theft on a grand and colossal scale which no acknowledged criminals could hope to match. It is a compulsory seizure of the property of the State’s inhabitants or subjects.

• Canada went from first levying income tax in 1917 as a temporary measure to more than a century later, stealing more than 50 percent of your income (once all taxes are combined). It is all justified under the banner of being an empathetic citizen.

• If the mafia extorts 3 percent of your revenue to provide you with some much-needed neighborhood protection, this is illegal. If your government empathetically takes more than 60 percent of your income, this is legal. Once the insatiable taxation apparatus is unleashed, the parasitic gluttony only worsens. The United States income tax code grew from 27 pages when it was first enacted in 1913 to 17,427 pages as of April 2024; furthermore, the opportunity and out-of-pocket costs of complying with the tax system in the United States in 2024 were estimated at $414 billion. How do we go from an income tax of 0 percent to one greater than 50 percent and from a tax code that expands from 27 to 17,427 pages?

• Suicidally empathetic socialists would love to see Elon Musk taxed at a nearly 100 percent rate, as he is apparently “unfairly” wealthy when other Americans must rely on food stamps to survive. These same folks fail to realize that Musk’s companies have injected $338+ billion into the US economy over the past five years alone, stemming from $110.7 billion in salaries, $46 billion in taxes levied, and $182.2 billion in procurement. Musk’s ability to generate and allocate capital is astoundingly greater than would be the case of a “caring and empathetic” centralized government agency.

Dr. Sad has done an excellent job in describing the current state of Western civilization with regard to suicidal empathy. It is hard to see how we have fallen so far, so fast, and even harder to see how we will dig ourselves out of this hole!

I highly recommend Suicidal Epapthy: Dying to be Kind. It’s a book we should all read.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

really great picture of where we are and where we’re headed

Lots of good stuff in this book I recommend it highly. I have two caveats. First , don’t get the audiobook. Saad isn’t the best reader. His pacing is off and he uses accented pronunciation when he says words based on other languages. It’s like AOC unsung Spanish phrasing. Second, be prepared for academic speak. Saad writes like an academic. He uses language that only an academic would use. It takes attention away from the real point of the book. I’ll bet he said deontological a hundred times. I mean, who really says that. Nonetheless, the book is a warning. We need to scale back our empathetic or we will be conquered.

[Wesley · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is not just suicidal empathy but homicidal empathy in the healthcare field. The belief that certain patients can’t handle a loving and truthful guidance leads providers to not help people live healthier and longer lives.

[༺ Jason ༻ · Rating 1 out of 5]

As an independent thinker and voter I’m proud to live in a country of free speech. That noted this book should be called When it’s ok to Hate because it’s full of rubbish.

[Monique Prins]

DNF.

I actually agree with much of the book's central thesis. The idea that empathy can become detached from reason and consequences is a serious and worthwhile topic. In fact, it is one that liberals and progressives should engage with more honestly.

My frustration was that the book seemed less interested in exploring a universal human tendency than in prosecuting a case against one side of the political spectrum. The argument increasingly felt predetermined: progressive excesses were presented as evidence of civilizational decline, while the shortcomings of the political right received comparatively little scrutiny.

That is a shame, because there is a genuinely important conversation to be had here. Empathy can mislead us. Good intentions do not guarantee good outcomes. But tribalism, nationalism, authoritarianism, and ideological loyalty can be just as distorting.

For readers interested in the underlying question, I found myself wishing I was reading a broader and more psychologically grounded exploration of the topic rather than a culture-war polemic. The core idea is compelling; the framing ultimately wasn't for me.

[Josh McQueen · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I purchased this book, I was hoping for something more academic. Gad Saad has ideas that merit further consideration, however, it always feels as though there is something more that should be said. I am not advocating for the book to solely become statistics, as Saad’s personal stories were interesting, but the use of statistics and an quantitative examination of the aftermath of the so called “suicidal empathy” would have greatly benefitted the different sections. Oftentimes, the ideas felt overshadowed by political comments that felt unnecessary. This also caused the book to feel less academic in nature. Overall, this book was fine, but felt more like a pop-political book rather than an academic investigation into society’s actions and their effects.

[Roni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent book where Dr. Saad tells it like it is; enjoyed the audiobook narrated by the author

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Een aantal jaar terug zwoor ik zelfhulpboeken af. Niet omdat er nooit iets waardevols in staat, maar omdat ik merkte dat veel mensen ( en dan doel ik vooral op de schrijvers ) ze behandelen alsof ze een soort absolute Waarheid met de hoofdletter W bevatten. Dat geloof ik niet. Geen enkel boek bezit de Waarheid. Hooguit bevat het een perspectief dat je aan het denken zet.

Ik weet dat dit boek niet helemaal een zelfhulpboek is, maar ik las het wel een beetje op die manier. Niet als een handleiding voor hoe je moet leven, maar als een uitnodiging om empathie te onderzoeken.

Empathie is zo'n woord als sociaal, loyaal, tolerant of solidair. Woorden die bij veel mensen automatisch een positief gevoel oproepen. Vaak zijn we zo in de ban van dat positieve gevoel dat we soms vergeten dat er ook een keerzijde bestaat.

Laat ik vooropstellen dat ik empathie op persoonlijk niveau geen slechte eigenschap vind. Het vermogen om te begrijpen of aan te voelen wat iemand anders ervaart, maakt relaties mogelijk. Hierdoor kan je een goede vriend steunen of een relatie opbouwen.

Maar tijdens het lezen merkte ik dat het boek eigenlijk een andere vraag stelt.

Wat gebeurt er wanneer empathie niet langer iets is tussen twee mensen, maar een maatschappelijk principe wordt?
Daar begon het voor mij interessant te worden.

Misschien leef ik soms onder een steen, maar ik kwam voorbeelden tegen waarvan mijn broek afzakte. Dat er mensen zijn die echt bijzondere verwachtingen hebben van de wereld om hen heen en de maatschappij.
De schrijver noemt dat "Unicornia". Een soort denkbeeldige wereld waarin conflicten opgelost kunnen worden als we elkaar maar voldoende begrijpen. Waar begrip uiteindelijk belangrijker wordt dan de werkelijkheid zelf.

Misschien klinkt dit cynisch, maar ik heb nooit geloofd dat de wereld uitsluitend uit goede mensen of goede bedoelingen bestaat. Al op jonge leeftijd ontdekte ik dat het leven ook bestaat uit teleurstelling, conflict, verlies en soms simpelweg slechte intenties.

Dat betekent niet dat empathie waardeloos is. Integendeel. Maar ik denk wel dat empathie iets anders is dan waarheid. Ik probeer kleuters bijvoorbeeld al te leren dat iemand die huilt niet automatisch verdrietig hoeft te zijn. Mensen huilen uit boosheid, frustratie, opluchting, manipulatie of zelfs blijdschap. Een emotie waarnemen is niet hetzelfde als begrijpen wat er werkelijk gebeurt.

Misschien is dat waarom ik objectiviteit uiteindelijk betrouwbaarder vind dan puur gevoel. Niet omdat gevoelens onbelangrijk zijn, maar omdat ze slechts een deel van de werkelijkheid laten zien.

Wat ik soms lastig vind aan de voorbeelden in dit boek, is dat ze lijken uit te gaan van een wereld waarin iedereen uiteindelijk begrepen kan worden. (unicornia)
Maar hoe empathisch mensen ook zijn, er zal altijd iemand zijn die je niet begrijpt, niet mag of het fundamenteel met je oneens is. Dat is geen fout in de wereld; dat hoort bij het leven.

Misschien is dat ook waarom ik moeite heb met het idee dat begrip van anderen de oplossing zou zijn. Want als je goedkeuring van anderen nodig hebt om jezelf te kunnen zijn, dan leg je een deel van je identiteit buiten jezelf.
Volgens mij sla je dan een belangrijke stap over. Een deel van volwassen worden is accepteren dat niet iedereen je zal begrijpen. Niet iedereen zal je aardig vinden. Niet iedereen zal jouw keuzes goedkeuren.
En dat hoeft ook niet.

Anyway, dit doet me denken aan dat ik als kind bij mijn oma naar de wc ging en daar altijd een bordje zag hangen met een Franse tekst. Toen kon ik geen Frans, nu wel.

"Être tolérant ce n'est pas tolérer les intolérances des autres."

Tolerant zijn betekent niet dat je de intoleranties van anderen moet tolereren.

Misschien geldt hetzelfde voor empathie.
Begrip hebben voor iemand betekent niet dat je alles hoeft te accepteren. Misschien begint wijsheid juist bij het herkennen van die grens.

[Joanne Hattersley · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are books that ask questions and there are some that make you think. There are books that make you reevaluate how you perceive something. This book is a combination of them all. It demands your attention. It’s not a gentle read; it is a book that needs your undivided attention. However, it will make you smile too.
The core of the book is that Western society has become so consumed by emotional thinking and performative compassion that it has started abandoning common sense, accountability, and logic. In his view, empathy without logic can become dangerous. It is a bold argument, and he delivers it with the confidence of a man who has had his fair share of controversy.
Saad writes with humour, sarcasm, and intelligence. He doesn’t sit on the fence. His opinions are blunt & to the point, well backed up with research. His observations are sharp and written in a way that makes even the most complicated of subjects easily readable for the average person.
The book is constant. There is no time to take a breath when you are reading and the battle is ongoing. If you’re looking for a calm and balanced discussion this book is not for you.
The book is opinionated. It’s confrontational. There are moments of deliberate provocation. But by the time you’re done, you will have plenty to think about.

[Patsy Hancock · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Antidote to Civilizational Suicide
Gad Saad’s Suicidal Empathy is a brilliant, courageous, and urgently needed book. With his characteristic clarity and intellectual sharpness, Saad exposes one of the most dangerous trends of our time: the elevation of unchecked empathy and tolerance into sacred principles that override reason, evidence, and even basic self-preservation.

This is not just another culture-war polemic. It’s a deeply insightful diagnosis of how societies can literally talk themselves into decline by prioritizing performative compassion over survival instincts. Saad combines evolutionary psychology, real-world examples, and fearless analysis to show why this mindset is not virtuous — it’s suicidal.

What makes the book especially valuable is that Saad doesn’t stop at diagnosis — he also provides practical steps to protect yourself and resist the pull of suicidal empathy.

If you care about the future of Western civilization and want to understand the forces undermining it, read this book. It’s one of the most important works I’ve read in years. Highly recommended.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a good book, showing some of the silly choices and convictions people make against their own best interests. Sadly, as some of them are dying they still will not give up the conviction, because they could be perceived poorly among their peers.

The people that need this book most, won't read it.
It has become a death cult of emotional or victimhood olympics to be perceived as the best. Even if it drags everyone down, you can go knowing you were the best at doing the supposed right thing.

[Brent Soderstrum · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book drips with sarcasm and truth. Those who need to read it will not. They consider themselves above this. White women, who are liberals, illegal immigrants, and Islamics are those who this book is written for. Sadly, they will refuse to read it.

Suicidal empathy is a disease that has infected many in the United States. Saad gives many examples that had me shaking my head. I would then think of other examples that are relevant in today's time.

There are many times when I shake my head, not believing that anyone could really think the way many in our time do. I live in fear of these people getting control of our country again. Four years of Biden nearly destroyed our nation. After the 2024 shellacking, I would have thought that they would come back to the middle. It appears they cannot overcome the suicidal empathy that they have been infected with. Instead of moderation, the woke freaks are becoming more so.

[Mattias Peters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book

[Michael Cawley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, fascinating, and thought-provoking exploration of the interplay between empathy, justice, and prudence.

[Courtney Conover · Rating 5 out of 5]

Saad is a master of reading, analyzing, and obtaining an in depth understanding of complicated human behavior few can match. His analysis here is no different. Our current society is very literally "dying to be kind", and if we don't turn this around, we're inevitably doomed as a species.

I have been witnessing this societal decline just like Saad has, and worry about what it means for our future.

I'm one of the many who stand against our collective suicidal instinct as Westerners.
The popularity of this book gives me hope we can recover.

[Jeffrey Horelick · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Brilliant Wake-Up Call on Modern Empathy

Suicidal Empathy by Gad Saad is one of the most intellectually engaging and thought-provoking books I have read in years. I read several books every week, and very few stand out as true learning experiences the way this one did. From beginning to end, Professor Saad demonstrates an extraordinary level of intelligence, courage, and dedication in explaining the behavioral and psychological roots of many of today’s cultural and societal conflicts.

I would also like to thank Elon Musk for recommending this book. Without that suggestion, I may never have discovered such a fascinating and important read.

What makes this book so compelling is the way Gad Saad combines psychology, evolutionary behavioral science, current events, history, and real-world examples into a clear and understandable narrative. Rather than simply presenting theories, he carefully walks the reader through examples that illustrate how excessive empathy when detached from logic, self-preservation, and truth can become destructive both personally and societally.

The author discusses modern cultural events and controversies in ways that challenge readers to think critically. He references incidents such as the aftermath of George Floyd and the tragic case of Laken Riley to demonstrate how ideology, language manipulation, and emotional reasoning can sometimes overshadow rational discussion and accountability. Whether one agrees with every conclusion or not, the book succeeds in encouraging readers to examine difficult issues honestly rather than emotionally.

One particularly memorable section involved the manipulation of language itself. Saad explains how changing terminology can soften or normalize behaviors that society once clearly condemned. His examples were shocking at times, but they made an important point about how language shapes perception. The discussion about attempts to normalize even extreme behaviors, including cannibalism in certain academic circles, was especially disturbing yet eye-opening because it demonstrated how far ideological movements can go when boundaries are removed in the name of empathy or tolerance.

Another powerful analogy in the book is the classic story of the scorpion and the frog. The frog, acting out of compassion, carries the scorpion across the river only to be stung in the end. That immediately reminded me of the story often referenced by Donald Trump during his speeches about the kind woman who rescues a snake from the cold, only to be bitten after showing it mercy. Both stories perfectly illustrate the core message behind “suicidal empathy”; when compassion ignores human nature, danger, or self-preservation, the consequences can be devastating.


At the same time, what I appreciated most was that Gad Saad does not argue against kindness or helping others. In fact, the book indirectly reinforces the importance of altruism helping others without selfish intent, but with wisdom, discernment, and personal responsibility. There is a major difference between healthy compassion and self-destructive empathy, and this book explains that distinction brilliantly.

What truly elevates this book is its readability. Despite dealing with complex psychological and societal issues, the writing remains entertaining, engaging, and often humorous. Saad’s storytelling ability keeps the reader interested while gradually connecting all the individual examples into a larger picture. By the end of the book, the reader begins to understand how many modern problems originate, how emotional manipulation can distort truth, and how awareness and rational thinking may help society course-correct.

This is not just a political or cultural commentary, it is a deep psychological exploration of human behavior, ideology, and survival. Whether you agree with every argument or not, Suicidal Empathy forces you to think, question assumptions, and examine the consequences of valuing feelings over reality.

[Olga · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is a version of this book that could have been genuinely interesting.

You can see it flickering underneath the surface occasionally. The central question is not absurd: can empathy, untethered from prudence, become destructive? Of course it can. History is full of good intentions calcifying into systems that harm the very people they claim to protect. Excessive bureaucracy. Performative institutional morality. Governments mistaking management for wisdom.

I do not even disagree with Saad on some of this. His criticisms of over-governance, punitive taxation, ideological conformity within academia, and certain forms of moral grandstanding are not inherently unreasonable.

But the problem with Suicidal Empathy is that it mistakes volume for argument.

What I expected from Gad Saad, given his academic background, was something rigorous. Data-driven. Careful. Perhaps provocative, yes, but still disciplined by evidence and nuance. Instead, the book reads strangely reactive. Angry in a way that gradually narrows its own intelligence. Anecdotes pile onto anecdotes until the argument begins to feel less like analysis and more like grievance accumulation. Everything becomes evidence for the thesis because the thesis has already been emotionally decided in advance.

That was my largest frustration. Not disagreement. Reduction.

The world presented here is flattened into moral binaries I simply do not believe survive serious scrutiny. Compassion versus civilisation. Empathy versus reason. The “sane” versus the ideologically infected. Real societies are messier than that. Human beings are messier than that.

Any serious discussion of immigration, governance, identity politics, institutional failure, or social cohesion requires a tolerance for contradiction and ambiguity. Saad seems profoundly impatient with ambiguity. The result is a book that often feels rhetorically certain long before it has earned that certainty intellectually.

I also found the tone exhausting. The constant abrasiveness eventually dulls rather than sharpens the argument. Sarcasm can illuminate hypocrisy in small doses. Sustained over an entire book, it starts to feel defensive. There is a difference between intellectual fearlessness and perpetual outrage. I kept wishing the writing would slow down enough to interrogate itself.

And then there is the question of Israel and Zionism, which I found particularly difficult here because nuance almost entirely disappears. Whatever one’s position on the conflict, it is impossible to discuss it honestly without acknowledging tragedy, history, extremism, suffering, and moral complexity on multiple sides. Saad writes as though complexity itself is evidence of weakness. I cannot follow him there.

What unsettled me most, though, is that the book occasionally gestures toward something real before immediately collapsing into ideological overreach. There is a conversation worth having about the way modern institutions weaponise emotional language. About how empathy can become performative rather than humane. About whether Western societies have lost confidence in their own cultural foundations. Those are legitimate questions. Important questions, even.

But legitimate questions do not automatically produce good books.

I finished this feeling disappointed more than angry. I expected more intellectual seriousness than this. More restraint. More curiosity. More willingness to examine counterexamples with genuine openness rather than rhetorical impatience.

And yet I did read the whole thing. That matters. There was enough here to keep me engaged, even while resisting it. Enough moments where I thought: yes, there is something worth exploring underneath all this noise.

I just do not think this book explored it particularly well.

2 out of 5.

[Diego Velasquez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Title: The Ugly Truth of Our Modern Society
★★★★★
Gad Saad does not flinch, and that is exactly why this book matters. In a culture that punishes honesty and rewards comfortable lies, he names what most people are afraid to even think out loud. Suicidal empathy is the perfect term for the disease eating the West from the inside out, the impulse to extend compassion so far that it becomes self-destruction. We have reached a point where a society is expected to apologize for its own existence, dismantle its own institutions, and welcome its own decline in the name of being kind. Saad refuses to play along, and reading him feels like watching someone finally turn the lights on.
What makes this book hit harder than the usual cultural commentary is that Saad is not coming at it from a partisan angle. He is an evolutionary behavioral scientist who lived through real horror as a child in Lebanon, and he writes with the clarity of someone who knows what civilizational collapse actually looks like. He has seen what happens when societies lose the will to defend their own values, and he is sounding the alarm before the same thing happens here.
He dismantles the idea pathogens one by one. Postmodernism, identity politics, radical feminism in its activist form, the cult of pathological altruism, and the academic cowardice that lets it all flourish. None of it survives contact with reason and observable reality, which is exactly why these ideologies depend on silencing dissent rather than defending themselves on the merits.
The chapter on suicidal empathy alone is worth the price of the book. It explains so much of what we are watching unfold in real time. Open borders without limits. Cities that protect criminals more than victims. Schools that teach children to hate the country that gave them their freedoms. Every single one of these is the same disease wearing different masks, and Saad calls it out.
You will not agree with every single point he makes, and you do not have to. What you will get is a thinker who is willing to say the things the rest of the intellectual class has decided are too dangerous to their careers to even whisper. That kind of moral courage is rare right now, and it is exactly what the West needs more of.
Read it. Loan it to people you care about. Have the uncomfortable conversations afterward. We do not get to fix what we refuse to name.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

There seems to be no doubt anymore that the West is in a death spiral. The condition is very advanced in Europe, where France, Germany, Belgium, England, Ireland, and Scotland have let in so many immigrants who are antithetical, even hostile, to their ancient laws and cultures that reversal is now impossible. This was made possible in part by the suicidal empathy Gad Saad discusses in this book--the urge that some people have to expiate what they see as their sins by being kind to the exact people who don't deserve their kindness. This is how you get situations, which he recounts in sickening numbers, of women who are murdered or raped by these immigrants, most of them Moslems from Asia and Africa, and refusing to report that detail to the police lest there be a "racist backlash" against the immigrant communities that are destroying the victims' countries.

Another manifestation of the mental parasite of suicidal empathy is in inverting the roles of criminals and victims, showing mercy to the violent killers, rapists, arsonists and felons and contempt for their victims. We see this all too often in the US today, with leftist judges who continue to release criminals who have been in their court 20, 30, 40 or more times, and who are let go without so much as a warning, returned to the streets to keep committing their depredations on the innocent, secure in the knowledge that there will be no punishment. The judges' empathy for these scum is in part due to suicidal empathy, though I believe there are other nefarious reasons as well.

In this book Professor Saad has shown us the origins of the mental parasite of suicidal empathy; the effect of its infection; and, in the last few pages, told us some ways we can combat it. I hope his words are taken to heart by our whole society, lest we bring about our own collapse and disappearance as a civilization because of the infection.

[David Slater · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gad Saad’s Suicidal Empathy is one of the best-selling books in the world right now, which alone should serve as a wake-up call.

Here’s a challenge for my friends on the left who twice concluded that everyone who voted for Trump (I did not) is a racist, sexist, brain-dead dupe... should you choose to accept it:

Read it (it's not long).

Not as a conservative manifesto, but as a peek into the minds of millions of otherwise persuadable people you’ve reduced to caricatures. In other words, seize the opportunity to learn exactly why so many real-life, genuinely thinking voters preferred a candidate as terminally flawed as Trump to two supposedly fantastic Democratic opponents. Look in the mirror Saad so effectively holds up before it’s too late.

If your response is to knee-jerk diagnose Saad with a condition that renders his ideas unworthy of consideration, especially while offering not a single specific response to any of his clearly stated opinions, you’ll be proving one of his core criticisms about modern-day liberals.

[Anna Mock · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd rather give this a 3.5 stars. I think what he is saying is important to recognize and see clearly. However, I think he could be saying it in a much less divisive way. I think many people put blinders on to the fact that not all cultures mesh well together - and that doesn't mean one is racist or whatnot, it just shows a clearer understanding that when values and moral are in opposition to each other, coexisting in the same space is not really going to work. It honestly doesn't matter which cultures. So it's foolish - and yes, detrimental to societies - to pretend that it will all work out as long as we give in and sacrifice one culture for the other. (Especially if the one culture requires the submission of and violence towards the other.) However, there are ways to convey truth without stirring up emotions, passions, and anger and divisiveness. I don't know if I'll keep this book - it's something to put on the shelf to remember this time in history - sort of as a cultural artifact - but at the same time, I only have so much book shelf space.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book, but most of it had thoughts and philosophical critiques I’ve heard elsewhere, so not much of it was new to me. I wholeheartedly agree with Saad’s outlook and the serious dangers of societal suicidal empathy, but nothing in particular stood out as particularly profound or groundbreaking. But, again, as a long-time fan and adherent of Thomas Sowell’s seminal works, much of “Suicidal Empathy” felt like it covered a lot of the same ground. It’s not a bad book, and could be quite eye-opening to younger generations or the “philosophically uninitiated”, but didn’t really shed any new light for me. I should say I started to grow a bit weary of Saad’s sarcastic humor about halfway through the book. The targets of his vinegar richly deserve it, of course, but the sheer amount of it became a little much.

[Nicolas Cuba · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mix of satire and social sciences(oxymoron, and a less entertaining form of satire), Saad makes some interesting points about western society's misguided empathy and how it is ultimately hurting institutional trust and competence.

Truth-seeking is a form of kindness, but it is a slippery slope to sounding like an asshole if not phrased correctly. I've struggled to touch the topics of this book in a polite manner. It causes a gut reaction in me when thinking about it, and in others when hearing about it, but they are important points and thankfully, are now well within the Overton window.

We should be infinitely patient, understanding and kind to those close to us (close friends and family), not to strangers.

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

AI Overview
Yes, it is highly likely they did not read the book. A sudden influx of 17 one-star reviews within days of publication is a textbook sign of "review bombing" or a coordinated spam attack, often perpetrated by automated bot accounts, competing authors, or disgruntled individuals.

Several factors indicate these reviews are likely fake rather than genuine feedback:

Impossible Timeline: It is statistically improbable that 17 separate, genuine readers would all purchase, receive, and read a book—and subsequently post a review—within a 24 to 48-hour window.

Lack of Context: Fake review-bombs frequently consist solely of a 1-star rating without any written text explaining why the reader disliked the book.

[Trudy Nye · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you've struggled to explain to very woke friends and family that empathy is not always a positive or productive choice, this book is a great place to start such a conversation. The news is filled with countless examples of empathy gone wrong. Just recently, a young woman declined to press charges against a man who had attacked her and a friend, saying she "didn't want to put another black man in jail." A short time later, the recipient of her "kindness" pushed a 76-year-old man down some subway stairs to his death. Her misplaced empathy essentially resulted in a death sentence for an innocent man.