Suicidal Irony
Gad Saad, desperately tries to reason with Joe Rogan
W.G.H
This past week was a really rough one for yours truly, on multiple levels, hence I wasn’t in any state to sit down and write. It was one of those times that stops you in your tracks, slaps you across the face and forces you to think about life. Among other things, I had to travel to a funeral and to keep my mind off the tragic event that preceded it, I listened to the Joe Rogan podcast episode with Prof. Gad Saad.
To be quite frank, I was never a huge fan of Rogan. Not in “Fear factor”, not as a comedian (he’s simply not that funny), and he’s my least favorite member of the UFC commentary crew. His podcast is unarguably the most popular one on planet earth (to borrow one of his catch phrases), and I do have an appreciation to the mere fact, that among others, Joe is willing to talk with people like Prof. Saad, Jordan Peterson and other serious intellectuals who may not share his views.
I’d shared my frustration in the past, about him inviting Douglas Murray to talk, only to be ambushed by a tag team of amateur pseudo thinkers, such as Rogan himself and sad class clown Dave Smith. That was a signal to me, that while Joe paints himself as an open minded, truth seeking guy, he was quite scared of facing Murray’s arguments by himself (in fear he might have to agree).
Well, if anything, the episode with Gad Saad made it clear to me that he had every right to be scared. I am no match for the intellectual might of Saad or Murray, Peterson, so what I’m about to say isn’t really a slight. Joe proved completely incapable to challenge the Prof. points in any way, other than the emotional indignation. I am not surprised, because that is the only way one can try to argue with reality.
It’s perfectly fine to be outmatched in a conversation. It happens to all of us, myself included.
We’re here to learn and that’s a choice we can make. Reflecting on this episode, I thought about what it was exactly that irritated me most about Rogan, and the following is my attempt to put it into a few coherent sentences.
Prof. Saad presented the concept he outlines in his latest book “Suicidal Empathy: Dying to Be Kind”, and gave a couple of examples for the listeners and viewers. One of those, is the now famous one about the brain hairworm and the wood cricket, wherein the hairworm infects the insect who, despite despising water, is compelled to dive to his watery grave due to the parasitic nature of the worm, who needs water in order to complete its reproductive cycle.
Saad uses plain language, simple analogies, to demonstrate to anyone how a parasitic idea uses an empathetic host to further its own need, on the expense of the kind host.
I think you’d agree this concept is very simple to grasp, and I thought Rogan would get it. He certainly seemed to have understood it, and they spent some time discussing examples of how this is manifested in our human society, to the detriment of - mostly - western democracies. So far, this is intellectually honest, open minded Rogan. Until… until the discussion gets to Israel and Jews.
At that point, I got a reminder of why I am not a big fan of the world’s #1 podcaster. Up until that point it was “Yes, Gad. I see it. That’s such a great concept.” From that point on, Joe seemed to have completely forgotten about the discussion and in a display of great irony, went on to exemplify suicidal empathy himself.
I honestly don’t know what it is, that turns off people’s brain as soon as the word Israel comes up. Or the Jews. As soon as the topic of Israel came up, it was Rogan falling back over and over again to “But look at what they’re doing to Gaza, they’re obliterating Gaza, they’re bombing Gaza to smithereens. What? October 7th? Yeah, that was terrible, man. But look at what they’re doing to Gaza.” A second after he was done complimenting Prof. Saad on his extremely well written book, he forgot all about it, and became a wood cricket.
God bless Gad Saad. I have never witnessed - perhaps with the exception of Thomas Sowell - anyone respond to absolute nonsense, with such poise and calm logic.
But Rogan wouldn’t budge. Nothing could move him away from his emotionally charged accusations, undoubtedly a result of that very suicidal empathy he’s been harboring for a while now.
He then went on a tirade about “the Jews” and their magical powers over every American politician, and how the mayoral candidates said they will go to Israel, except Mamdani of course.
Prof. Saad didn’t push back hardly at all at Rogan’s absolutely irrational attack. He simply asked him to perform a couple of simple intellectual exercises, but Joe never wants to place the responsibility on anyone other than Israel or the Jews.
Yes, the October 7th attack preceded the operation in Gaza, but “Did you see what they do to Gaza?”
Yes, Islam conquest existed long before the state of Israel, but “Did you see what they do to Gaza?”
Hey Joe. Did you hear about Professor Saad’s book “Suicidal Empathy: Dying to Be Kind“? Did you learn anything from it? Are you even capable of clear thinking when it comes to the topic of Israel? Or are you just another grifter, cashing in on the hype?
When Saad pointed out that most - if not all - of Israel’s critics completely ignore any other atrocities in the world, including in Ukraine, Africa, and other places where Christians, Muslims and other people were or are butchered by Muslims, Joe went for the obvious “but this is whataboutism, right?”
Since Substack still doesn’t support payment in Israel, You’re welcome to make a pledge by
Yes, Joe. It is. And what of it?
This is not a “get out of jail free” card, Joe. Throwing this term, doesn’t make all of those other things magically go away, nor does it rid you of the responsibility to deal with them. You are in fact, ignoring many people’s anguish, and focus solely on one group. What Gad Saad is asking you is, why is that?
So call it whataboutism all you want. You still need to say why you seem to be obsessed with one situation while ignoring the rest.
Not only do you judge Israel too harshly - and Prof Saad provided you some facts to contend with, which you completely pushed aside as they didn’t sit well with your ideology - you don’t judge anyone else at all. Why is that, Joe?
Similarly with the so familiar obsession over Jewish/Israeli influence on US policies. The same spiel you hear from the likes of Cantdance Owens, Trucker Qatarlson and Madyn Kelly. Aipac, Jewish money funding all of the American politicians, Netanyahu putting a spell on Trump, dragging him - against his will - to a needless war in Iran. Yada yada yada.
Again, Prof. Saad calmly presents reality to Rogan. He demonstrates with extreme ease (which is not surprising, as the information is readily available for anyone who cares to look), how in fact Israeli and Jewish lobbies are relatively small, in comparison to lobbies representing countries who are not allies. China, Qatar, Russia.
Professor Saad even states the obvious - If I was Joe I’d be embarrassed hearing this - that yes, other countries will act in their own interests. Wow! What a concept. I know… Who woulda thunk it!? A country who wants help from the US is investing in the US? What a weird notion.
That doesn’t matter to Joe, who makes every excuse under the sun for those countries except for… you guessed it. Israel, the country who proved beyond a shadow of a doubt, its allegiance to the USA geopolitical agenda, while insisting - stubborn Jews we are - on securing its own borders.
Why don’t you give us the same credit you give even Qatar, Joe? What is it about Israel or Jews that makes you obsess so hard, not even wanting to engage with Prof. Saad about Christians being murdered in the thousands around the globe? Why won’t you concede that your cockamamy theories about us simply don’t align with reality, as clearly, simply and easily demonstrated before your very eyes, by one of the world’s most intelligent people?
Yes, what irritated me the most about Rogan this time, was his inability to see the hump on his own back.
He suffers form a severe case of suicidal empathy, placing it with the people who invaded, raped, maimed, kidnapped and butchered Jews, all while blaming the country who tries to secure its borders for generations to come, for every ill in the world. Why? because of parasitical ideologies that infected his brain.
Joe Rogan may be a popular podcaster but he’s a fucking idiot who only needs to be one IQ point less unintelligent than his knuckledragging followers.
Rogan is not, and has never been, a serious interlocutor. I think Saad goes on because he hopes his arguments reach Rogan’s audience even if indirectly. And it is free advertising for his book. The sad thing is that most folks who watch Rogan won’t read it.