In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, Professor Gad Saad explained his theory of “Collective Munchausen” syndrome and how it applies to social justice warriors.
As a part of an exclusive and wide-ranging conversation with Breitbart News, Professor Gad Saad of Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, explained how social justice warriors diagnose others with moral depravity so that they can stroke their own egos.
“I took the classic dictum ‘I think, therefore I am,’ and I updated it to ‘I’m a victim, therefore I am’ or what I call ‘collective Munchausen.’ Munchausen is the idea that I feign an illness or medical condition so that I can garner sympathy or empathy,” Saad explained. “Munchausen by proxy is when I harm someone else who is under my care, let’s say my child, so that everyone will say, ‘oh, poor you, you have a sick child.’ It’s a very diabolical psychiatric disorder.”
Saad went on to explain how Munchausen syndrome applies to social justice warriors. “I argue that the social justice warrior types are really proselytized by this ‘Collective Munchausen.’ ‘That’s how I get all my ego strokes. Am I a bigger victim than you?’ Therefore, anything that challenges that, if you remove some of my victimology points, you are attacking my central being,” he explained.
In academia, questioning a social justice warrior’s perspective on an issue is quite commonly viewed as an attack on that person’s identity or experience. Social justice warriors often try to convince others that their critics are immoral and callous, as a warning sign to others that a similar tarring and feathering will come upon them if they are to speak up.
As a result of their success in putting others down, social justice warriors easily claim moral supremacy. On certain campuses, social justice warriors have used their moral authority to construe the mere utterance of non-progressive viewpoints as oppression.
Consider the popular theme, made famous by Women’s March organizer Linda Sarsour, that disagreement is acceptable unless that disagreement is “rooted in” someone’s “oppression.” This concept has become very popular on campus. American Enterprise Institute scholar Christina Hoff Sommers is often considered a threat to student safety when she visits campuses because her civil disagreement with what has become mainstream feminist doctrine “invalidates the experiences” of students, and therefore, allegedly, emboldens oppression.
Saad explained that he uses experiences from his own life to counter attacks from social justice warriors who wish to write off his perspective and accuse him of lacking either the virtue or victim status that they believe is a prerequisite for speaking on controversial issues. As Lebanese Jews during the Lebanese Civil War, Saad and his family were under “imminent threat of execution” before they fled to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1975.
“I score very highly on those metrics. I’m the guy from the middle east who escaped execution, who is ‘differently-weighted,’ right? Because we shouldn’t say ‘overweight,'” Saad quipped.”Therefore, when you put me into the algorithm of those scores, I’m probably going to beat you,” he argued.
On Wednesday, Breitbart News published Professor Saad’s advice for parents that are considering to send their children to progressive colleges and universities.
On Thursday, Professor Saad explained how social justice politics has taken the form of a “quasi-religion” on college campuses.
You can watch all of Breitbart News’ interview with Gad Saad below.