Towards the end of the summer, the Tory-Reform defector(叛逃者，倒戈者) Robert Jenrick authored an op-ed(（报纸的）评论版文章) piece for the Daily Telegraph about the seemingly impossible economics of rising benefits bills because of mental ill-health. In his capacity as Reform’s Treasury spokesman, his task was to big up its plans to cut 25% of so-called welfare spending by 2030, and thereby tackle what he called the state’s “suicidal empathy”.(作为改革党的财政事务发言人，他的任务是大力宣传该党计划到2030年削减25%所谓福利开支，以此解决他口中的“自杀式同理心”。)
夏末时节，从保守党倒戈至改革党的罗伯特·詹里克为《每日电讯报》撰写了一篇评论文章，讨论因心理健康问题导致的福利账单上涨这一看似无解的经济难题。作为改革党的财政事务发言人，他的任务是大力宣传该党计划到2030年削减25%所谓福利开支，以此解决他口中这个国家的“自杀式同理心”。
Straight away, I wondered where this most opportunistic(投机的，机会主义的) politician had borrowed that phrase from, and instantly found out: a book with the same title, published this year by the Canadian academic Gad Saad, whom the dust jacket(（书的）护封) describes as having particular expertise in “the use of evolutionary psychology(进化心理学) in marketing and consumer behaviour”. It comes with an endorsement(背书，推荐) from Elon Musk. “Western civilisation is doomed unless the core weakness of suicidal empathy is recognised and actions are taken that are hard but necessary for survival,” says the world’s richest man.(这位世界首富说：“除非人们认识到自杀式同理心这一核心弱点，并采取艰难却为生存所必需的行动，否则西方文明注定灭亡。”) “All of Gad’s books, including this one, are great.”
我立刻好奇，这位最会投机的政客是从哪里借来这个说法的，随即就查到了：一本同名著作，今年由加拿大学者加德·萨阿德出版，书的护封称他在“进化心理学在营销与消费者行为中的应用”方面有独到专长。该书还获得了埃隆·马斯克的推荐。这位世界首富说：“除非人们认识到自杀式同理心这一核心弱点，并采取艰难却为生存所必需的行动，否则西方文明注定灭亡。加德的所有书，包括这本，都很棒。”
Unfortunately, Suicidal Empathy is not great. It is, in fact, a baggy mess(松散杂乱的一团), glueing together absurd straw men(稻草人谬误) (“suicidal empathy can cause people to care more about rapists and other felon(重罪犯)s than their victims”) to familiar arguments about immigration, Covid lockdowns and whether the word “imbecile” is offensive. One of its most head-turning claims is that the west’s supposed embrace of degenerate woke-ism is largely traceable to the fact that “women are much more likely to succumb to such emotional and ideological capture”.(书中最令人瞠目的主张之一是：西方所谓对堕落觉醒主义的拥抱，很大程度上可归因于“女性更容易陷入这种情感与意识形态的俘获”。) At a push, its most useful function is as a meandering(漫无边际的，蜿蜒的) guide to the soup of ideas(观念的大杂烩) simmering(（情绪、观念）酝酿的) in the minds of hardcore Maga(特朗普“让美国再次伟大”运动) voters as they prepared for this week’s midterms.
遗憾的是，《自杀式同理心》并不出色。事实上，它是一盘松散的大杂烩，把荒谬的稻草人论点（“自杀式同理心会让人更关心强奸犯和其他重罪犯，而非受害者”）与关于移民、新冠封锁以及“白痴”一词是否冒犯的常见争论粘在一起。书中最令人瞠目的主张之一是：西方所谓对堕落觉醒主义的拥抱，很大程度上可归因于“女性更容易陷入这种情感与意识形态的俘获”。勉强说来，它最有用的功能是充当一份漫无边际的指南，让人窥见铁杆MAGA选民在准备本周中期选举时脑中翻滚的观念浓汤。