Jordan Peterson: Wandering through YouTube during shelter in place.

As many of you have experienced, the shelter in place has afforded me the opportunity to do many things I normally would not have done.  I washed the windows, built stuff (literally stuff), and wandered down internet rabbit holes.  I am not sure how it even started, but I think I was looking at music videos on YouTube, which led me to watching these videos made by Rick Beato (If you are into music, I suggest you check it out).  That led me to a Joe Rogan interview with Metallica singer James Hetfield and another interview with Smashing Pumpkins front-man Billy Corrigan.  Eventually, I saw Rogan interview Jordan Peterson.  The next thing I know I had watched five or so hours of Peterson in a variety of different contexts.

I was aware of Jordan Peterson and seen some of his more famous clips, the British television interview was one of them, and had read a few articles about him.  I haven't seen the movie about him that also got some headlines and made progressives quite upset.  I think it is available on Amazon. But I was attracted by his willingness to confront the progressive views that dominate both the academic ecosystem and the media landscape.  He seemed unafraid of the backlash, the Twitter fall out, or the impending calls to have him cancelled or blacklisted.  But more than that, he is smart...really smart and he is able to confront the progressive ideas and beliefs by attacking them with truth and logic.  He is quick to respond, yet circumspect and deliberate.  He can seem angered or upset during contentious interviews, but he controls it and responds with a clinicians objective analysis.  When journalists attempt to corner him or bully him, they quickly find out that they came to a gun fight armed with only a pocket knife.  

The progressives don't like Peterson.  The reason is quite simple.  He is standing up and pushing back against their Marxist, Post Modern narrative of the West, and he does so by providing facts, truth, and logic, all of which is kryptonite to progressives.  Marxism, or as Peterson like to call it Neo-Marxism, is a perspective of the world that exerts intellectual hegemony on most western universities.  This perspective reduces the world into typically two categories based on a perceived power structure: haves and have nots, oppressed and oppressor, labor and capital, 1% and the rest, whites and people of color.  The list is long!  In this dualistic approach, there exists an unequal distribution of power and resources, and the goal of Marxist is to correct this inequality. Contrary to what many progressives believe, this dualistic approach is quite simple and lacks real analytical observation.  The relationships of the vast many groups that make up a culture are more dynamic and interrelated than Marxist really understand, or dare to admit.  Peterson challenges this simplistic view and uses science and his thirty year career as a clinician to refute both the premise and the goal.  Post Modernism attempts to eradicate the existence of an absolute truth and replace it with a narrative based belief that is relative to the individual and their experience.  Post Modernism allows one to liberate themselves from the constraints of reality and create their own based on fiat and convenience.  Peterson pushes back against the obvious ridiculousness of Post Modernism and the problems such ideas have created in our society.

In the typical progressive, fascist, and tyrannical approach, they have attempted to marginalize Peterson by misconstruing his ideas and labeling him as "Alt-Right".  In the Twitter culture of the 21st century, taking a soundbite or attempting to reduce a person's claim to 200 or so characters, allows for people to deliberately mislead others.  The short attention span of our culture promotes headline comprehension and little else.  But more insidious is the labeling of Peterson as "Alt Right."  The problem is that "Alt-Right" is a pejorative term that attempts to define a political subset of right that is racist, or white supramacist, and largely male.  He is said to be the hero of the angry, white males that helped Trump get elected.  However, the connection to Peterson appears to be a result of these "Alt-Right" groups following him on social media or on the dark web.  By labeling Peterson as a part of the Alt Right, they are attempting to delegitimatize him.  This is the tired, but tried and true tactic of progressives, to call someone who is challenging their belief and power a racist (or homophobe, or intolerant, or anti-science, etc), in hopes of preventing a real discussion and dialogue about the issues.  In fact, one of the arguments I have heard from progressives is that engaging in a discussion or debate with their opponents only legitiamizes their opponents belief.  To the progressive that is a scary proposition.  They want the issue tilted in their favor, because when it is not, they are left to defend their illogical ideas with logic.  A precarious position indeed.

As I listened to these interviews, I scrolled through the comment sections.  Many of the videos had well over 10,000 comments.  I don't think I found a single negative comment.  Many women, who are not supposed to be a part of Peterson's audience, seem to like very much what Peterson says.  In the GQ interview with Helen Lewis, she says she is finishing a book on feminism.  Allegedly, a comment said "I can't wait to NOT buy her book."  It ended up getting over 60k likes and eventually taken down by YouTube.  Similar posts followed, with the same outcome.  

Take look at the linked videos...watch for yourself...but beware, you can get lose a lot of time as you descend down the rabbit hole.