Evolutionary psychologist Dr. Gad Saad warned that escalating political rhetoric, including a social media post by actor Mark Hamill showing a headstone for President Donald Trump, reflects a “suicidal” shift in American values.
Speaking on “Jesse Watters Primetime,” Saad said the country is being overtaken by a “hyperactive” form of empathy, which in some cases has led to political violence. He said this mindset has “clobbered” reason.
“Civilizations do not die by murder; they die by suicide,” Saad said Thursday. “I’m arguing that the means by which we are committing suicide is by the dysregulation of an otherwise virtuous value, which is empathy.”
Saad explained that while empathy is a good thing to have, “suicidal empathy” occurs when it is applied in the wrong situations. He said that when a society’s desire for compassion overrides its survival instincts, it can lead to dangerous outcomes, giving the example of a victim of violent crime protecting an attacker to avoid appearing wrong or judgmental.
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The warning comes after backlash surrounding “Star Wars” actor Mark Hamill, who shared an AI-generated image on the platform Bluesky showing Trump’s headstone with the caption “If Only.” The post came days after what law enforcement officials say was an assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.
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Hamill later deleted the post and wrote that Trump should “live long enough to witness his inevitable devastating loss in the midterms, be held accountable for his unprecedented corruption, impeached, convicted & humiliated for his countless crimes.”
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro has also warned about a rise in political violence, saying law enforcement is seeing “more and more” people intent on committing crimes.
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“We’ve crossed the Rubicon because, for some reason, they think that they are allowed to violate the law, kill individuals if it satisfies what they think is their political moral compass,” Pirro said Thursday on “Fox & Friends.”
Pirro cited a shooting involving a Secret Service officer near the Washington Monument, saying political violence in the district is becoming more common.
“People, for some reason, think they can come here and that they can commit these acts,” Pirro said. “That they’ll get attention for — to exercise their right to complain about what they think is unfair politics.”
Fox News’ CJ Womack contributed to this report.
