Gad Saad: Too much empathy 'can destroy the West'

Added: 2026-05-15

[00:00:00]Welcome back. A recent tragedy here in New York, a reminder of the costs of suicidal empathy. 76-year-old retired teacher Ross Falzone thrown down the steps of a subway station by a psychopath. Fzone was killed by a man who should have never been on the streets. The accused killer, this 32-year-old repeat offender, Raml Burke, smiling in a courtroom.

[00:00:26]That should anger you. Police say he was released from the psych ward the same day that he killed Felzone. The New York Post's Miranda Divine revealing that a liberal New York woman who was attacked by that man just before he killed Foulzone.

[00:00:42]The 23-year-old refusing to cooperate with prosecutors after Burke attacked her on a subway as well. She said, "Because maybe part of me was like, I don't want to put another black man in jail." And now because she didn't cooperate with police, he went out just weeks later and murdered a retired school teacher by throwing him down the stairs. Dr. Gad Sad is uh the author of the book Suicidal Empathy. It is a book that is exactly about moments like this um and and and what we're doing to ourselves to achieve some kind of ridiculous virtue. Uh doctor, good to have you back on your reaction to that story and talk about, you know, this is exactly your point, >> right? Uh I mean, it's too bad that that story didn't happen uh in time to include it in the book, but uh the regrettable uh feature here is that I've got a million such cases in the book. I mean, it's simply incredible. What I'd like the the listeners and viewers to understand is that the book is not about an attack on empathy. Empathy is an evolutionarily selected trait. We are a social species. So it makes sense for us to have empathy as a virtue. For you and I to have a good conversation, I need to put myself in your mind and vice versa.

[00:02:01]That's part of cognitive empathy. But like most things in life, like Aristotle explained to us several thousand years ago, all good things in moderation. Too little of something is not good. Too much of something is not good. And much of life is about finding that sweet spot. So too little empathy or no empathy makes you a psychopath. Too much empathy when it hyperfires to in the wrong situations towards the wrong targets, you end up with a malady that can destroy the west. And there's no and there's no empathy for the innocent. You know that that's one thing that you never find. There's tremendous empathy for criminals and and for people that I I guess are viewed as somehow victims of society as they victimize us.

[00:02:44]>> Exactly. So in the case of the these recidivist criminals, the idea is that they are born as beautiful human beings and it is only the fact that they have been socialized into a life of criminality. In this case, it's a black individual who undoubtedly had to go through the horrors of living in the white supremacist United States. So in that case, why would you then double punish him? He's already been punished by being a black man in the United States. Now you're going to punish him by presuming that he's got personal agency. God forbid. He probably needs another 200 chances before we actually throw away the key.

[00:03:22]>> You got to wonder what that 23-year-old woman feels knowing that this has happened. You know, because she didn't want to prosecute. She didn't want to help the police. He'd be in jail. This wouldn't have happened.

[00:03:31]>> Indeed. Frankly, I I hate to say this, but I bet you that she probably doesn't even feel any guilt. I'll tell you an even more incredible story than the one that you just discussed. There was a gentleman in Norway who was raped and sodomized by a Somali migrant. The Somali migrant ended up serving a very small sentence in Norway because the Norwegians are very kind and empathetic.

[00:03:53]After he was released, he was going to be deported back to Mo Mogadishu. The guy who had been raped by him felt horrible existential angst because now he wouldn't be able to his rapist wouldn't be able to fully flourish in Moadishu. Poor guy.

[00:04:11]>> That's just it's just unbelievable. Um and and it it it I guess doesn't surprise me anymore, but the the extent of that is is just surreal. Um real quick before I do let you go, do you see the judge that let the guy off in Boston, the guy that shot up like 50, 60 rounds, he shot at people, injured two people. He had only gotten five years in jail for firing 13 shots at police officers. They went to the judge's house. She said, "I don't even remember the case." Um, at what point do we need to start holding to account the judges that are allowing these people to continue to victimize society?

[00:04:45]>> Look, life is about cause and effect relationships. Once you violate that relationship between what you do and the consequences of that, which is the case with many of these liberal judges, you end up with nealism.

[00:04:59]>> I love it. Yeah, good to see you. Dr. Gad said, we appreciate you coming on.

[00:05:02]It is a wonderful book. Uh, thank you so much for joining us. Suicidal empathy is the name of it. We appreciate it, sir.

[00:05:08]>> Cheers. Thank you.

[00:05:09]>> Coming up, >> you know, everybody's reporting the same stories, the same spin. You turn the channel, it's always the same. But not us. We're different. We report the real news. No spin, just the facts. Turn to us and you won't turn back.

[00:05:23]>> Tune in to Rob Schmidt tonight on Newsmax.