As far as the facts and the overall message of the book, I pretty much agree entirely. In terms of the presentation/delivery and general vibe, I hated it. If you admit that people have an issue with misplaced empathy, but then use sarcastic/cynical satire nonstop, can you really be surprised when it doesn't land with the people who need it the most? I didn't laugh once, but I did cringe quite a bit.

That said, it's a pretty non-stop onslaught of facts. It'd take a very long time to refute and/or put into question every one—there's hundreds, and lots of other empirical data from evolutionary biology. But, you know how I feel about empirical data, it's only useful for refuting old ideas, pulling part contradictions, never proving a theory.

Also the book is politically charged. In reality I think both the far-right and far-left may be suicidally empathetic in different ways. There were tons of tongue-in-cheek jabs at specific politicians, again, I didn't laugh once.

But, I don't even like the term "suicidal empathy" anymore! I've moved on to suicidal pacifism. Empathy is a claim about what someone else is thinking and feeling—I can't claim to know that, and I don't want to. It's pure psychologism. I have a hard enough time enjoying living in the moment instead of constantly second guessing some supposed real motivation that I'm not in control of. I think psychologism has creeped into our culture in really distasteful ways, people (well not you guys, lol) often talk about everyone else's trauma.

All that said, I would still recommend this book. Especially to those who disagree with the current government, it may be worth taking some of the ideas in the book seriously, despite the delivery. Particularly the idea that a society where people can't bring themselves to criticize or oppose something for fear of seeming intolerant is a dangerous and scary one.

Here's an AI generated summary:

Suicidal Empathy — Gad Saad (2026)

Saad, an evolutionary behavioral scientist at Concordia University, argues that Western liberal democracies are undermining themselves through a pathological misdirection of empathy — extending moral concern, tolerance, and accommodation to ideologies, movements, and actors that are fundamentally hostile to the values that make those societies worth preserving.

Core argument: Healthy empathy is calibrated and reciprocal. "Suicidal empathy" is unconditional empathy — extended regardless of whether the recipient shares basic norms of liberalism, pluralism, or human dignity. When a society cannot bring itself to criticize or oppose something for fear of seeming intolerant, that society has made a weapon of its own virtue.

• Key targets:

• Campus reactions to October 7 and the normalization of pro-Hamas sentiment in Western institutions

• list itemIslamist ideology receiving protection under multicultural frameworks designed for ethnic/religious minorities

• DEI and intersectionality frameworks that create hierarchies of protected victimhood

• Immigration policy that resists scrutiny of cultural incompatibility on progressive grounds

• Institutional cowardice — media, academia, government — driven by fear of being labeled racist/Islamophobic/etc.

Method:
Almost entirely empirical — crime statistics, polling data, survey research, policy outcomes. Dense with citations. The rhetorical mode is sarcastic and combative throughout, which is consistent with his broader "Saad Truth" brand.

Evolutionary framing: He grounds the argument in evolutionary psychology — tribalism, in-group/out-group dynamics, the adaptive vs. maladaptive deployment of prosocial instincts. Suicidal empathy is, in his framing, a misfiring of evolved social cognition in a novel ideological environment.

What he's not arguing: He distinguishes his position from nativism or xenophobia. The argument is about ideas and behaviors, not ethnicity. Though critics (and honestly the book's own tone) make that line harder to hold."