Fiery Exchange Between Seth Rogen And Gad Saad Ignites Both Sides Of The Political Aisle

Canadian Jewish comedian, writer, director and actor Seth Rogen and Dr. Gad Saad a Jewish Lebanese Canadian Professor, Evolutionary Behavioral Scientist, and Author have fundamental differences in the way they interpret reality. On Jan 31 the 2 Jews with a divide wider than Moses parted the Red Sea, had a back and forth Twitter battle in which the professor verbally canes the Hollywood elitist with the case against his hypocritical stance on socialism.

Gad has been very outspoken in opposition to the phenomenon of the poorly named “social justice warriors” (as they generally have nothing to do with justice) on his twitter account, his Youtube channel and in his recent masterpiece book titled  “The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense”.  

Instead of summarizing Saad’s positions you can get a feel for his views succinctly within his recent twitter thread which is also the genesis of the Twitter battle:

To preface the exchange it’s important to know a little about who the players are. 

For those not familiar with what an Evolutionary Behavioral Scientist is it is the study of human behaviour from an evolutionary perspective with additional perspectives from across the behavioral sciences (e.g., sociology, political science, criminology) and humanities (e.g., history, literature studies).

What does this definition mean? It means Saad literally specializes in human behavior. He has published over 75 scientific papers, received multiple academic awards, published multiple successful books in the psychology niche and isn’t just another “guy on Twitter” with an opinion. It’s important to frame him in this way not to stroke his ego but to preface that his points come from a position of deep thought on these very topics. He is not stepping outside of his field, this IS his field. 

For most people Seth Rogen doesn’t need an introduction. Over the last 20 years he has had quite a successful career in Hollywood. Rogen has starred in, directed and written multiple blockbuster films.

Now that the stage is set…drum roll…enter stage right …the catalyst. 

A Twitter account named Ben “the Mandatorian” B suggested to Rogen to read the series of tweets Saad had posted (the tweets he is suggesting to Rogen are pictured in the beginning of this article which we originally described as “the genesis of the Twitter battle”). 

The video that Saad then cites in the tweet above is his recent Youtube video titled “How the Elite Ruling Class Assuage Their Existential Guilt” in which he further lays out his theory and reads from an article titled “The Narcissism and Grandiosity of Celebrities – What do Jenny McCarthy, Oprah, and Madonna have in common?” which he authored in 2019 that was published on Psychology Today’s website.

If you are inclined take the time to read the original short article or watch the quick video below for additional context:

After what can only be described as seriously deep introspection and contemplation the actor responds to the tweet with: 

Saad responds with a series of tweets which are a strong indication of the origin of his nickname …. “the Honey Badger”: 

It’s hard to not feel slightly sorry for Rogen at this point as its obvious that he’s bitten off more than he can chew: 

Saad wraps up with the following series of tweets:

Rogen gets the last Tweet word in: 

The next day Saad posted this video to his Youtube which highlighted the exchange and had some additional commentary: 

How do we digest their exchange? Many have tweeted support for Rogen but it seems that the majority of people agree with Gad’s point of view.

The ratio of likes on Dr Saad’s posts far outnumber the likes and retweets of Rogen’s tweets even though Rogen has 9.1 million followers vs Gad’s 302,000 followers. 

Of course we can go deeper than the empty value of Twitter ratios and we come to the fact that the majority of people are getting sick and tired of celebrities virtue signaling from their ivory towers. There have been countless memes poking fun at this during the pandemic like this post from the popular conservative satire site the Babylon Bee: 

In recent years there has been a resurgence of socialist “values” being espoused by celebrities most of which couldn’t tell you the cost of something as simple as a jug of milk from the local grocery store as they are that comically removed from regular society, nevermind determine the impacts of complex systems like socialism. 

These individuals with next to zero idea of the historical and economic woes of socialism (not to be confused with social programs like free public education) cry out from their massive platforms that they are socialists, avowed Marxists, some even say outright communists. 

The short definition of socialism via Britannica.com:  Socialism is a populist economic and political system based on public ownership (also known as collective or common ownership) of the means of production. Those means include the machinery, tools, and factories used to produce goods that aim to directly satisfy human needs. 

In a purely socialist system, all legal production and distribution decisions are made by the government, and individuals rely on the state for everything from food to healthcare. The government determines the output and pricing levels of these goods and services.

Further via investopedia: “According to the socialist view, individuals do not live or work in isolation but live in cooperation with one another. Furthermore, everything that people produce is in some sense a social product, and everyone who contributes to the production of a good is entitled to a share in it. Society as a whole, therefore, should own or at least control property for the benefit of all its members. Socialists contend that shared ownership of resources and central planning provide a more equal distribution of goods and services and a more equitable society.”

Now we can bring it back to Seth Rogen:

-Last year in Haaretz he admits his father is a socialist and he was brought up with “a lot of very socialist ideals.” 

-The Independent UK quotes Rogen that: his parents’ socialism taught him “a very diplomatic sense of how to operate a team”. 

-In 2019 his father Mark Rogen and Seth received the “Generation to Generation Activism Award” at an event put on by the by a Jewish social-justice organization the Workers Circle. According to the NY Post Rogen was quoted as describing the event as “socialist chic” and  “It’s very fancy. It’s socialist fancy.”

If you scroll through Seth’s Twitter feed it will be undeniable that he is at least very sympathetic self described socialists as he retweets many of their posts as well as he is vehemently opposed to many politicians on the right. Here are a few of his recent tweets towards Senator Ted Cruz:

No matter your political stance these tweets do not come off as someone who wants to engage like an adult, they are quite aggressive and essentially have no tangible value. Using social media as a conduit for performative virtue signaling and public figures as virtual punching bags is the norm for teenagers, not successful adults. He’s also established a pattern, these can’t be written off as a “just bad day on the internet” as most of us have had the pleasure of regretting at some point. 

Rogen also has an interesting stance on Israel, something we know is quite popular with leftists and some socialists.  He made what seemed to be anti-Israel remarks on Marc Maron’s WTF Podcast. According to The Guardian Rogen said on the podcast  “[As] a Jewish person I was fed a huge amount of lies about Israel my entire life,” and “They never tell you that, ‘Oh, by the way, there were people there’. They make it seem like it was just like sitting there, like the fucking door’s open.”

I’m not sure what Canadian Jewish school Mr Rogen attended in Vancouver but I suspect we were of a similar “wandering mind” student archetype, and even I was never under the impression that Israel had no Arabs living there in 1948 and was acutely aware the doors were never just “open”. His parents met on a kibbutz in Israel for G-d’s sake, pleading ignorance on these topics is just silly. 

Ynet News reported he also said the following on Maron’s podcast: When asked if he believes Israel has the right to exist, Rogen gave a vague answer, alluding to the fact that he doesn’t. “To me it just seems an antiquated thought process,” Rogen said. “If it is for religious reasons, I don’t agree with it, because I think religion is silly.”

Since the podcast he has explained it was mostly in jest but he doubled down on a few points like his education about Israel.  He even had some friendly outreach from Isaac Herzog (Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel)  to try and smooth things over but Rogen managed to bite that hand by stating he never made an apology and that Herzog published a private conversation even though Haaretz sources say that Rogen “did indeed express an apology” and that Rogen had said Herzog could release “everything” about their conversation.

All of this information has been included to drive home the seeming oxymoron that someone who seems to be very enamored by socialism, who is constantly dropping his socialist background, who is being given awards by socialists for his activism…  is worth a reported 80 million dollars

This fact doesn’t gel with Socialism or its stated socialist values whatsoever. Why is he not giving most of his fortune away to the government for redistribution? Why doesn’t he take the money he earns from his next movie and redistribute it to the rest of society? 

Saad is right, Rogen and many other celebrities are champagne socialists, pure and simple.  

You may ask why an intellectual heavyweight like Dr Saad would “punch down” or bother to engage with Seth but in Gad’s words  “Seth Rogen has a huge audience” and “there should never be a missed opportunity to change people’s minds.”

He attempted to engage with Rogen and instead of a conversation Rogen chose to take the low road and Dr Sadd put on a display to attempt to teach not only Seth Rogen the multi millionaire “socialist” a lesson but a lesson to all those that had the pleasure of reading their exchange. 

Seth Rogan is not the devil. His twitter rants aside, is a talented, extremely funny fellow Canadian Jewish man with what seems to be a good heart for some causes but nevertheless has some seriously flawed and conflicting ideas. He is allowed to have these views but people like Gad (and yourself if so inclined) should always push back on these ideas – lest they become the prevailing social norm.

Unfortunately people with these views seem to be currently winning the ideological culture war. I guarantee you that the collateral damage from the culture war hits closer to home than most are aware of. 

We really recommend Dr Gad Saad’s book “The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense” it will shed a light on many polarizing events that we have all been experiencing in our private, public and even professional lives. We also hope that those like Seth Rogen try to see things from a different perspective and extend those on the opposite side of the political spectrum (especially fellow jews) an olive branch from time to time. It will turn down the heat and give us the opportunity to create common ground which we can hopefully  build a bridge upon.