Why the Left Is So Afraid of Jordan Peterson

[Grim17]

I only discovered him this year, so I'm kind of late to the game when it comes to Jordan Peterson, clinical psychologist and professor at the University of Toronto... But the man is incredible. Even though Peterson is not a political person, he is hands down the greatest political thinker and public intellectual out there today. I have watched dozens of videos over the last several months and have yet to see anyone who has interviewed or debated him (in opposition to his views) not walk away with their tail tucked between their legs.

Anyway, this is an article published today by The Atlantic that attempts to explain why Peterson is seen as such a threat by progressives and those on the left. Even though I don't think the article ever completely nailed it down, it was never the less a good read.

Why the Left Is So Afraid of Jordan Peterson
The Canadian psychology professor’s stardom is evidence that leftism is on the decline—and deeply vulnerable.

CAITLIN FLANAGAN 5:00 AM ET

EXCERPT


t’s hard to think of a best-selling self-help book whose author has not appeared on the classic morning shows; these programs—Today and Good Morning America and CBS This Morning—are almost entirely devoted to the subject of self-help. But the producers did their part, and Peterson did not go to their studios to sit among the lifestyle celebrities and talk for a few minutes about the psychological benefits of simple interventions in one’s daily life. This should have stopped progress, except Peterson was by then engaged in something that can only be compared to a conventional book tour if conventional book tours routinely put authors in front of live audiences well in excess of 2,500 people, in addition to the untold millions more listening to podcasts and watching videos. (Videos on Peterson’s YouTube channel have been viewed, overall, tens of millions of times.) It seemed that the book did not need the anointing oils of the Today show.


The left has an obvious and pressing need to unperson him; what he and the other members of the so-called “intellectual dark web” are offering is kryptonite to identity politics. There is an eagerness to attach reputation-destroying ideas to him, such as that he is a supporter of something called “enforced monogamy,” an anthropological concept referring to the social pressures that exist in certain cultures that serve to encourage marriage. He mentioned the term during a wide-ranging interview with a New York Times reporter, which led to the endlessly repeated falsehood that he believes that the government should be in the business of arranging marriages. There is also the inaccurate belief that he refuses to refer to transgender people by the gendered pronoun conforming to their identity. What he refuses to do is to abide by any laws that could require compelled speech.


There are plenty of reasons for individual readers to dislike Jordan Peterson. He’s a Jungian and that isn’t your cup of tea; he is, by his own admission, a very serious person and you think he should lighten up now and then; you find him boring; you’re not interested in either identity politics or in the arguments against it. There are many legitimate reasons to disagree with him on a number of subjects, and many people of good will do. But there is no coherent reason for the left’s obliterating and irrational hatred of Jordan Peterson. What, then, accounts for it?

Peterson discusses a whole host of things in his lectures and public appearances, but for me, the following clip represents the essence of the man. I recommend that everyone take the time to watch this video, regardless of where you stand politically. It's simply brilliant.



.

 

[Carjosse]

 

[kitsune]

I'm to the left of many people. I haven't been afraid of Jordan Peterson because I've never heard of him before. Now that I have, I did the Google, watched a couple of videos, and read a Guardian piece about him and I'm still not afraid of him. I can't see any reason why I should be. Maybe those who are could explain it.

 

[SonOfDaedalus]

I don't care for him. He promotes this male victimhood trend. It feeds into the MTGOW movement of angry virgins who blame women for their plight.

 

[Acadia]

Peterson's biggest weapon is his unflappability in the face of leftist tactics.
I discovered him about a year ago and feel that he put into words and conceptualized so much of what I've observed in the past couple of years.

 

[AGENT J]

I only discovered him this year, so I'm kind of late to the game when it comes to Jordan Peterson, clinical psychologist and professor at the University of Toronto... But the man is incredible. Even though Peterson is not a political person, he is hands down the greatest political thinker and public intellectual out there today. I have watched dozens of videos over the last several months and have yet to see anyone who has interviewed or debated him (in opposition to his views) not walk away with their tail tucked between their legs.

Anyway, this is an article published today by The Atlantic that attempts to explain why Peterson is seen as such a threat by progressives and those on the left. Even though I don't think the article ever completely nailed it down, it was never the less a good read.





Peterson discusses a whole host of things in his lectures and public appearances, but for me, the following clip represents the essence of the man. I recommend that everyone take the time to watch this video, regardless of where you stand politically. It's simply brilliant.



.

Sigh another dishonest and biased OP

1.) its the Atlantic
2.) never heard of him until just now
3.) LMAO I cant answer for "the left" since im not on the left but just like the right, the left are not a collective all with matching thoughts

 

[Beaudreaux]

This is a two hour video, so be forewarned, however... it should be a requirement for every Progressive to watch, that believes in Political Correctness.



You an also go to the Munk Debates web page and watch other extremely interesting debates. You can also do as I have and join their website to help them continue such a great intellectual exercises that asks us to defend our opinions.

 

[Grim17]

Sigh another dishonest and biased OP

Biased... most certainly... but dishonest?

How so?

.

 

[Grim17]

I'm to the left of many people. I haven't been afraid of Jordan Peterson because I've never heard of him before. Now that I have, I did the Google, watched a couple of videos, and read a Guardian piece about him and I'm still not afraid of him. I can't see any reason why I should be. Maybe those who are could explain it.

If you want to understand why many on the far left (not moderate democrats/liberals) see Peterson as a threat to their political agenda, just look him up on YouTube. His lectures and speaking engagements deal with a multitude of topics and although there are many that address relevant political issues, Peterson himself is not political person. He originally started out on YouTube uploading videos of his college lectures as a means to help people. What brought him into the limelight was his opposition at the University of Toronto, to a proposed Canadian law that would compel the use of certain speech. Then an interview he did with Cathy Newman on the BBC (you should look that one up) made him an absolute hero.

If you watch the video I included in the op, it will give you an idea of who he is and what he's about.

.

 

[Mr Person]

Who is Jordan Peterson?

- The Vast Liberal Conspiracy

 

[AGENT J]

Biased... most certainly... but dishonest?

How so?

.

Easy . .
because "the left" isnt against who ever that is . . .maybe some people who happen to be on the left are but thats about it


claiming otherwise is just as dishonest and retarded as when people say the left want to take away guns, the left hate religion, the right hate equal rights, the right is racist, the right hates gay etc etc

 

[Middle_Ground]

Never heard of him...
Don't care about him, I'm happy you found someone you can look up to.

 

[kitsune]

If you want to understand why many on the far left (not moderate democrats/liberals) see Peterson as a threat to their political agenda, just look him up on YouTube. His lectures and speaking engagements deal with a multitude of topics and although there are many that address relevant political issues, Peterson himself is not political person. He originally started out on YouTube uploading videos of his college lectures as a means to help people. What brought him into the limelight was his opposition at the University of Toronto, to a proposed Canadian law that would compel the use of certain speech. Then an interview he did with Cathy Newman on the BBC (you should look that one up) made him an absolute hero.
viewpoint that I don't pay much
If you watch the video I included in the op, it will give you an idea of who he is and what he's about.

.

Yes, I can see what he's about. And I don't see him or the positions he takes as any sort of threat to my "agenda". Such as it is. Or anyone else's for that matter.

 

[Xelor]

First I read the OP. Then I read the Atlantic article and for the better part of five minutes, the most I could muster was this.....

He was in that humour when a man will cut off his nose to spite his face.
-- Robert Louis Stevenson, The Master of Ballantrae​

While the left may by Peterson -- a fellow who's been described as "the stupid man’s smart person" -- be disconcerted, the right is apparently so, as Flanagan put it, "starved" for a thinker that they have hymned his vitriol against identity politics while their own embrace and far reaching embrace of identity politics elides their notice. Of the smattering of "righties" who can read more than a tweet's worth, how many, I wonder read to the end of Flannigan's essay.

"The alt-right venerates identity politics just as fervently as the left, as the title of a recent essay reproduced on the alt-right website Counter-Currents reveals: 'Jordan Peterson’s Rejection of Identity Politics Allows White Ethnocide.' ... All across the country, there are people as repelled by the current White House as they are by the countless and increasingly baroque expressions of identity politics that dominate so much of the culture. ... [T]he Republican Party takes them for granted in folly."​

Just how spitefully stupid must one be to exalt a dude because he opposes identity politics when one is every bit as a user of them as is one's political opponent?

To amplify my point about the right's manifestly self-spiteful insipidity in choosing Peterson to be a champion of sorts, consider how Peterson describes himself and the ideas he embraces:

• Self-depiction: "A classic British liberal” (or here) whose focus is the psychology of belief.
• Beliefs:
  • Marginalised groups are infantilized by a culture of victimhood and offence-taking.
    • Hoax hawing, conspiracy theorizing, Donald Trump and his "woe are were....Oh, Donald please save us from PC, SJWs, immigrants, and minorities" Trumpkins and conservatives in general are the biggest victims around, who upon being shown as much are quick to grab their "Bibles" and declare "you" sanctimonious.
  • Ideological orthodoxy undermines individual responsibility.
    • A man touting that notion is the guy lionized by the so-called cadre, conservatives, that ostensibly stands for individualism. How droll!
  • "I...believe...Marxism is a murderous ideology. I believe its practitioners in modern universities should be ashamed of themselves for continuing to promote such vicious, untenable and anti-human ideas."
    • Hello! Marxism is something that can only be practiced and implemented by governments and that aims to abolish government. No university professor, president, or provost practices Marxism because none of them is a nation's president, pontiff, prince or potentate.
  • "The idea that women were oppressed throughout history is an appalling theory."
  • The existence of patriarchy and other forms of structural oppression are treacherous illusions.
    • Oh, I see. So conservatives have put on a pedestal a guy who think s the "Deep State" is just an illusion. Bless their hearts.
  • Islamophobia is “a word created by fascists and used by cowards to manipulate morons.” (Click here)
    • "Trump is a moron."
      -- Rex Tillerson.

So while it may be so that the left is bothered by Peterson, the right doesn't have the good sense not to embrace him.

Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.
-- Carrie Fisher​

 

[PirateMk1]

Sigh another dishonest and biased OP

1.) its the Atlantic
2.) never heard of him until just now
3.) LMAO I cant answer for "the left" since im not on the left but just like the right, the left are not a collective all with matching thoughts

Dishonest? Really? You have to there? Bias yes, obviously. Dishonest? Come on.

You make a great point with point three. I notice more and more, that we ei everyone are being put into one of two boxes (liberal or conservative). I doubt highly most of us would fit in either box.

 

[AGENT J]

Dishonest? Really? You have to there? Bias yes, obviously. Dishonest? Come on.

You make a great point with point three. I notice more and more, that we ei everyone are being put into one of two boxes (liberal or conservative). I doubt highly most of us would fit in either box.

Yes dishonest just like i said in post 11 and you basically just agreed with above
its dishonest because "the left" isnt against who ever that is . . .maybe some people who happen to be on the left are but thats about it


claiming otherwise is just as dishonest and retarded as when people say the left want to take away guns, the left hate religion, the right hate equal rights, the right is racist, the right hates gay etc etc

are any of those statement "honest"? of course not and neither is the OP title

 

[PirateMk1]

Yes dishonest just like i said in post 11 and you basically just agreed with above
its dishonest because "the left" isnt against who ever that is . . .maybe some people who happen to be on the left are but thats about it


claiming otherwise is just as dishonest and retarded as when people say the left want to take away guns, the left hate religion, the right hate equal rights, the right is racist, the right hates gay etc etc

are any of those statement "honest"? of course not and neither is the OP title

Its properly called bias and hyperbole. Because that's what is. When you get down to the brass tacks there are plenty of lefties who would and do exactly what you just said plenty don't. Calling it dishonest is your version of trolling, which you are want to do on occasion. That and the I win because I say its fact shtick and you wonder why people don't want to debate with you. Calling people dishonest for everything is just as dumb as the hyperbole lots of other posters use on this board, of which I am quite guilty, in spades I might add, as you are as well on occasion. Does that make YOU dishonest? The correct answer is NO, this applies to not only you.

 

[PirateMk1]

First I read the OP. Then I read the Atlantic article and for the better part of five minutes, the most I could muster was this.....

He was in that humour when a man will cut off his nose to spite his face.
-- Robert Louis Stevenson, The Master of Ballantrae​

While the left may by Peterson -- a fellow who's been described as "the stupid man’s smart person" -- be disconcerted, the right is apparently so, as Flanagan put it, "starved" for a thinker that they have hymned his vitriol against identity politics while their own embrace and far reaching embrace of identity politics elides their notice. Of the smattering of "righties" who can read more than a tweet's worth, how many, I wonder read to the end of Flannigan's essay.

"The alt-right venerates identity politics just as fervently as the left, as the title of a recent essay reproduced on the alt-right website Counter-Currents reveals: 'Jordan Peterson’s Rejection of Identity Politics Allows White Ethnocide.' ... All across the country, there are people as repelled by the current White House as they are by the countless and increasingly baroque expressions of identity politics that dominate so much of the culture. ... [T]he Republican Party takes them for granted in folly."​

Just how spitefully stupid must one be to exalt a dude because he opposes identity politics when one is every bit as a user of them as is one's political opponent?

To amplify my point about the right's manifestly self-spiteful insipidity in choosing Peterson to be a champion of sorts, consider how Peterson describes himself and the ideas he embraces:

• Self-depiction: "A classic British liberal” (or here) whose focus is the psychology of belief.
• Beliefs:
  • Marginalised groups are infantilized by a culture of victimhood and offence-taking.
    • Hoax hawing, conspiracy theorizing, Donald Trump and his "woe are were....Oh, Donald please save us from PC, SJWs, immigrants, and minorities" Trumpkins and conservatives in general are the biggest victims around, who upon being shown as much are quick to grab their "Bibles" and declare "you" sanctimonious.
  • Ideological orthodoxy undermines individual responsibility.
    • A man touting that notion is the guy lionized by the so-called cadre, conservatives, that ostensibly stands for individualism. How droll!
  • "I...believe...Marxism is a murderous ideology. I believe its practitioners in modern universities should be ashamed of themselves for continuing to promote such vicious, untenable and anti-human ideas."
    • Hello! Marxism is something that can only be practiced and implemented by governments and that aims to abolish government. No university professor, president, or provost practices Marxism because none of them is a nation's president, pontiff, prince or potentate.
  • "The idea that women were oppressed throughout history is an appalling theory."
  • The existence of patriarchy and other forms of structural oppression are treacherous illusions.
    • Oh, I see. So conservatives have put on a pedestal a guy who think s the "Deep State" is just an illusion. Bless their hearts.
  • Islamophobia is “a word created by fascists and used by cowards to manipulate morons.” (Click here)
    • "Trump is a moron."
      -- Rex Tillerson.

So while it may be so that the left is bothered by Peterson, the right doesn't have the good sense not to embrace him.

Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.
-- Carrie Fisher​

At first glance I thought this post might be intelligent. Then I read it.

 

[AGENT J]

1.)Its properly called bias and hyperbole. Because that's what is.
2.) When you get down to the brass tacks there are plenty of lefties who would and do exactly what you just said plenty don't.
3.) Calling it dishonest is your version of trolling, which you are want to do on occasion.
4.) That and the I win because I say its fact shtick and you wonder why people don't want to debate with you.
5.) Calling people dishonest for everything is just as dumb as the hyperbole lots of other posters use on this board, of which I am quite guilty, in spades I might add, as you are as well on occasion.
6.)Does that make YOU dishonest? The correct answer is NO, this applies to not only you.

1.) no, its dishonest or ignorance because its factually not true pick one...
2.) plenty? how many is that? I also never said plenty dont, i said ALL dont. try to keep up but the main point is, its not ALL or even most.. so whats that leave? it makes it dishonest and factually wrong like i said. When people say the left want to take away guns, the left hate religion, the right hate equal rights, the right is racist, the right hates gay etc etc they are being dishonest or ignorant and they are part of the problem with politics. they arent interested in honest conversation nor do they have integrity.
3.) nope its just accurate its not trolling at all if you think otherwise report it and let me know how it goes.
4.) I win? when did i say I win? see thats MORE dishonesty or ignorance. Also when did i say i think that or wonder that? see, there you go making more things up LMAO
5.) Didnt call any person (let alone everybody) dishonest in this thread i called a post and thread title and they factually were (or based ignorance)
6.) of course it doesnt cause i didnt do any of the stuff you just made up?? are you drinking and posting right now?? :lol:

Fact remains the thread title is dishonest

 

[SonOfDaedalus]

a fellow who's been described as "the stupid man’s smart person"

That nails it.

 

[Zyphlin]

This is a two hour video, so be forewarned, however... it should be a requirement for every Progressive to watch, that believes in Political Correctness.

Absolutely adored Stephen Fry in this debate

 

[roughdraft274]

I don't care for him. He promotes this male victimhood trend. It feeds into the MTGOW movement of angry virgins who blame women for their plight.

How does he promote this? His biggest message to men is to improve yourself. He utterly detests the whole victim hood thing in it's entirety. I don't think Peterson is quite the messiah as he is described in the OP but he definitely does not promote male victimhood.

 

[roughdraft274]

I only discovered him this year, so I'm kind of late to the game when it comes to Jordan Peterson, clinical psychologist and professor at the University of Toronto... But the man is incredible. Even though Peterson is not a political person, he is hands down the greatest political thinker and public intellectual out there today. I have watched dozens of videos over the last several months and have yet to see anyone who has interviewed or debated him (in opposition to his views) not walk away with their tail tucked between their legs.

Anyway, this is an article published today by The Atlantic that attempts to explain why Peterson is seen as such a threat by progressives and those on the left. Even though I don't think the article ever completely nailed it down, it was never the less a good read.





Peterson discusses a whole host of things in his lectures and public appearances, but for me, the following clip represents the essence of the man. I recommend that everyone take the time to watch this video, regardless of where you stand politically. It's simply brilliant.



.

I've read his book and listened to his podcast. He's incredibly intelligent, well spoken. He's also wrong about a few things. But overall a very intelligent person with valid points.

And I'm not scared of him.

 

[TheGoverness]

I love that guy.

 

[TheGoverness]

This is a two hour video, so be forewarned, however... it should be a requirement for every Progressive to watch, that believes in Political Correctness.



You an also go to the Munk Debates web page and watch other extremely interesting debates. You can also do as I have and join their website to help them continue such a great intellectual exercises that asks us to defend our opinions.

I watched that when I first heard about it. It's a really good discussion, I have to say.