Pun Salad

I really enjoyed Gad Saad's contribution to Lawrence M. Krauss's collection of essays/articles The War on Science; it was punchy, witty, and powerful. This book, from 2020, expands and extends his worldview. I was fortunate to pick up the Kindle version on sale for $1.99 last month; it's more now.

Gad is a marketing professor up in Canada, at Concordia University. He also has roots in evolutionary psychology, math, and computer science. He grew up in Lebanon, in a Jewish family, at a time when Islamic persecution against Jews was ramping up; his description of his experiences with his family, resulting in their emigration, is harrowing. It's not surprising that one of the main theses in the book is how fundamentally antisemitic Islam is, and was. I would imagine that his critics dismiss him as "Islamophobic", but it's not a phobia if those guys are really trying to kill you.

But it's not just Islam; Gad sets his sights on the usual array of progressive notions. "Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity" (that ordering allows him to use the "DIE" acronym); radical feminism, transgender activism, victimology, postmodernism, … And so on. Filled with anecdotes about how these destructive ideologies have corrupted higher education (especially in the US and Canada). And making inroads on scientific inquiry.

As noted, the book is about five years old. Developments since then have not weakened his thesis. The only bright spot: more people seem to be aware of the issue and are successfully fighting it on numerous fronts.

His criticism is unsparing. My Kindle tells me that "lunacy" appears 21 times in the text. "Nonsense/nonsensical": 30 times. A scattering of "foolish", "imbecilic", etc. He does not suffer fools gladly.

My only real gripe is Gad's brief advocacy (around page 42) of regulating big tech companies as "utilities". His argument is weak, relying on faulty analogies. His cure would be worse than the disease.