Evolutionary behavioral scientist Gad Saad explores how excessive empathy toward harmful ideologies hijacks our thinking and judgment. His new book 'Suicidal Empathy: Dying to Be Kind' examines how parasitic ideas exploit our emotional systems, using the wood cricket parasite as a metaphor for how people become intellectually zombified. Saad argues that unchecked empathy toward criminals, hostile ideologies, and incompatible cultural values threatens Western freedoms and creates generational conflicts. Suicidal empathy occurs when misplaced compassion toward dangerous actors or ideologies—like supporting groups that would kill you—overrides rational self-preservation and survival instincts.