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In our world, many erroneous ideas persist—what Saad refers to as parasitic ideas. These often stem from cognitive biases or a lack of understanding in certain areas. Learning to identify and counteract such ideas is undeniably important and could significantly improve our world. Unfortunately, this is not what Saad’s book accomplishes, despite the author ambitiously labelling it a 'mind vaccine.' Instead, the book devolves into an attack on academia and scientific thinking. Rather than offering tools to overcome parasitic ideas, it employs pseudoscientific, anti-intellectual, and misleading arguments to enable the spread of the parasitic ideas Saad appears to favor.
An example from the book is when Saad argues that one is not a denier for asking to see evidence that climate change is real.
This general statement is indeed correct, but if Saad's intention was not merely to provide climate deniers with a self-congratulatory justification for rejecting science, then addressing the parasitic idea of denying well-established scientific findings requires more than this surface-level validation.
However, Saad never takes the next logical step: examining the scientific consensus, evaluating the evidence, or conducting a check to find what the prevailing picture among scientists working on this topic is. Instead, his focus lies on providing strategies to dismiss scientific findings and spread parasitic ideas to others.
Saad himself appears to have succumbed to this parasitic idea, as evidenced by his frequent posts on Twitter promoting anti-scientific rhetoric and denying the reality of anthropogenic climate change.
In any other context, this book would be recognized as propaganda.
It is, in essence, the modern equivalent of the fossil fuel industry's infamous campaigns built on flawed science and misinformation. Just ignore.
An example from the book is when Saad argues that one is not a denier for asking to see evidence that climate change is real.
This general statement is indeed correct, but if Saad's intention was not merely to provide climate deniers with a self-congratulatory justification for rejecting science, then addressing the parasitic idea of denying well-established scientific findings requires more than this surface-level validation.
However, Saad never takes the next logical step: examining the scientific consensus, evaluating the evidence, or conducting a check to find what the prevailing picture among scientists working on this topic is. Instead, his focus lies on providing strategies to dismiss scientific findings and spread parasitic ideas to others.
Saad himself appears to have succumbed to this parasitic idea, as evidenced by his frequent posts on Twitter promoting anti-scientific rhetoric and denying the reality of anthropogenic climate change.
In any other context, this book would be recognized as propaganda.
It is, in essence, the modern equivalent of the fossil fuel industry's infamous campaigns built on flawed science and misinformation. Just ignore.