I am several thousand miles away and honestly have read/listened to little of Peterson. Some of what he says I think is interesting, some I think is a huge leap. I have not absolutely scrutinized the manās work to have a strong opinion either way.
What I do know is that since he arrived on the scene there has been people desperate to jump on whatever he says as proof of him being an alt rightest or whatever.
The simple fact is that he is attracting an audience. It is comforting to some to portray this audience as X and Y (I made a quip about them above), but for the most part these are normal enough people who work normal jobs and many of whom have families. Some are lost or whatever, Iām not sure why itās funny to leer at men in their 20s for their position in life when the rate of male suicide is so high. The reality is that the majority of people are normal, non Tommy Robinson types, to which his message resonates.
You can criticize elements of that which is fair. You can even say that the taking the place of religion element of these types is concerning- but that isnāt restricted to the right or left wing. But I think the constant need to have a gotcha āheās racist/sexist/transphobicā moment with him is telling. You are not going to convince any of the millions who have turned to the likes of Peterson with that type of attack.
I donāt think Iāve ever even called Peterson alt-right, never mind anything else. I donāt know enough about him to do so, the little I have heard from sounds deeply uninteresting, pseudo-intellectual and basically amounts to little more than a whinge about society not being like the 1950s like you might get from some middle aged man drinking alone in a pub.
I think @Fagan_ODowdās description of him got it spot on - heās a gobshite.
Itās tremendously funny how youāre so offended at humorous digs about Petersonās audience being made up almost exclusively of white men, while you so fully embrace the Trumpās politics of vilification which cause actual harm on a massive scale against minorities and genuinely vulnerable people.
Right-wing identity politics is one of the saddest, most obviously pathetic things ever invented and the people who embrace it are the saddest, most obviously pathetic people around.
I know this fella. Heās sound. Does some good stuff cos he believes in it. Does some other stuff because heās trying to get elected for the greens. I hope he gets elected and then does stuff for real.
Sorry did you not see my post several hours ago where I talked about the same thing about them being all bald men?
Save this shit about āwhite menā. Ireland remains substantially a Caucasian country. The Green chap (and you) and transferring that straight from your US twitter timelines. Actually go to the US sometime and see what a multi racial population looks like, not some illusionary stuff on Twitter.
I just pointed out that I think the Green guy is either lying or an absolute weirdo. I know it made you chuckle, and youāre precisely his target audience, but cāest Ƨa.
You appear to be very confused about whatās funny and what isnāt, whatās bullying or vilificatory rhetoric with actual consequences and what isnāt. Quelle surprise.
Jordan Peterson may be Canadian but most of what he says appears to be rooted in US right-wing politics, specifically right-wing identity politics. Those who obsessively follow him here are the people trying to import that sort of discourse to this country. You canāt criticise somebody for engaging with or taking the piss out of them through their own terminology.
Earlier on you were defending two people who went on the basis that āmaybe they had an open mind?ā
Now youāre getting all offended by somebody turning up and offering genuinely humorous insights into what they were hearing. It doesnāt seem weird at all to me that somebody would take a free or cheap ticket and go to an event like this, perhaps with some preconceived notions of what they would hear but at the same time curious as to what that would be. Thatās actually the very definition of open mind. Itās no different than being offered a free or cheap ticket for a gig by an artist youāre not into and going along.
If that seems weird to you, well, your threshold for whatās weird is much lower than mine is, but sure I guess thatās the conservative coming out in you.
Iād say the ticket was free but heās trying like fuck to maximise his profile on twitter talking about it in order to be elected. Wannabee local politicians are weird like that.
I find it strange, weird even, that anybody would complain about somebody trying to maximise any small amount of media exposure they can garner for themselvesā¦at a Jordan Peterson event.
I would think he is being quite transperant. He is charging an extortionate fee to see him, after all.
The other is on Twitter desperately trying to get kudos from the likes of yourself. It worked, fair play to him. I guess life is always transactional, when when you take a free ticket to a social night out with a friend.
One is a shameless media whore whoās clearly more interested in coining it in rather than in genuine intellectual debate, the other is some little known person apparently involved in local politics posting genuinely humorous insights taking the piss out of what heās seeing and hearing.
If the latter has maximised any small exposure he has, fair fucking play to him.
I donāt see how one would complain about the latter but not the former, itās rather contradictory.
One of pretending he didnāt pay for a ticket and went along on a social occasion with a friend. He then proceeded to live Tweet and belittle the event and people he got a free ticket for.
We all know thatās a lie to try and build a profile for himself for a local authority election ().
The other is quite transparent in him being there to make money.
Fair play to the Green guy, itās worked a treat with chaps like yourself. Up at all hours railing against the āwhite manā who goes to these type of events on Twitter.
He talks basic common sense by and large, which is ironic as paying ninety notes, and an evening of your life to listen to it is as far from that as you can get.
Thatās a good article.
Iām glad he cleared up the following (I was about to take it up with the paper)
āThis article was amended on July 21st to attribute a maxim to Epictetus rather than Marcus Aureliusā
She? Very balanced, she read it with an open mind youd think. As aside from commentators who have never read it but feel they can make a definitive call on him
).