3 ms·

He's a reasonably successful psychologist and his opinions on psychology are often well founded. He's more controversial when he's speaking well outside of his

He's a reasonably successful psychologist and his opinions on psychology are often well founded. He's more controversial when he's speaking well outside of his domain which he does all the time. He got into politics because U of T was ready to fire professors for not engaging in compelled speech (E.G. Not using somebodies preferred pronoun "Xir" or "Ze" even if you use their preferred/legal name "Betty" and avoid misgendering) based on a misinterpretation of Canadian law supplied by the Ontario Human Rights Commission (later quietly corrected). The initial dispute quickly spiralled into self-parody in one debate where fellow professor A.W. Peet admitted to forgetting WHICH gender-neutral pronoun their friends use and suggested programming peoples pronouns into your contacts https://youtu.be/SiijS_9hPkM?t=356 https://youtu.be/SiijS_9hPkM?t=356. The Canadian government later introduced a 3 gender system for IDs and the American Psychological Association recommended the usage of singular "They". Yet Petersons amateur input only added to public confusion over the law, the controversy prompted him to only say more controversial things about gender, and he became this alt-right symbol whose fanbase holds far more extreme anti-trans views than he ever did. If he just stuck to psychology and ripping off Joseph Campbell he would be a lot less controversial and a lot less famous.

stanrivers 6y ago
That is part of the weird things about him - it’s like he somehow became this symbol that he didn’t want to be. He is loved by extreme far-right individuals as almost someone providing rationale for their views. I don’t think he ever meant that to happen, but it’s an interesting case study for, when you get out of your area of expertise, it is super easy for things to spiral out of control in a direction you weren’t planning on. Do you think a professor like that should not have gotten involved? If he was being threatened with being fired, it’s hard to not say something... is it just he went too far and should have turned down the increasingly more serious / public policy related interviews etc?
- TheOperator 6y ago
  His open condemnation of the word "Islamophobia" in response to a non-binding motion and posing with a guy wearing a "I'm a Proud Islamophobe" t-shirt inbetween the somebody shooting up a Canadian Mosque and the Christchurch shootings to me is a sign he was getting too mired down in politics and missing the forest for the trees. In both cases there was evidence the shooters were wrapped up in "Intellectual dark web", alt-lite, and alt-right circles and it seems like he missed the danger that others saw because he was blinded by the perception of progressive overreach. He also has a bit of a reputation for twitter toxicity and he later ended up with anxiety issues and consequently an addiction. It's hard for me to not see him as a cautionary tale of why to avoid getting wrapped up in politics and the culture wars.
  - stanrivers 6y ago
    Interesting on the Twitter front and that honestly is disappointing to hear. I thought the amount of involvement his daughter had on his podcasts was oddly commercial as well. I’ll go check out his Twitter. Agree - he has his failings for sure. I wonder if that makes him a good example or not... sometimes knowing that even those striving to do better do also fail is useful to humanize their message... similar thought with Cicero for example (vain despite his philosophies - not saying Peterson is in Cicero’s league). He seems to have recently turned a corner post the health issues. I wonder if he is going to approach things more quietly and more carefully this go around. Sounds like he is wanting to get busy.
  - stanrivers 6y ago
    Another aside - thanks for the context. It’s always good to get a fuller picture. Something I was unaware of that I will look into - you can learn from both the good and the failings in others.
s4n1ty 6y ago
He isn't an "alt-right symbol", that was a smear used by people to discredit him who had no actual arguments. He has a massive following, the vast majority of whom have very moderate politics.

stanrivers 6y ago

That is part of the weird things about him - it’s like he somehow became this symbol that he didn’t want to be. He is loved by extreme far-right individuals as almost someone providing rationale for their views. I don’t think he ever meant that to happen, but it’s an interesting case study for, when you get out of your area of expertise, it is super easy for things to spiral out of control in a direction you weren’t planning on. Do you think a professor like that should not have gotten involved? If he was being threatened with being fired, it’s hard to not say something... is it just he went too far and should have turned down the increasingly more serious / public policy related interviews etc?

TheOperator 6y ago
His open condemnation of the word "Islamophobia" in response to a non-binding motion and posing with a guy wearing a "I'm a Proud Islamophobe" t-shirt inbetween the somebody shooting up a Canadian Mosque and the Christchurch shootings to me is a sign he was getting too mired down in politics and missing the forest for the trees. In both cases there was evidence the shooters were wrapped up in "Intellectual dark web", alt-lite, and alt-right circles and it seems like he missed the danger that others saw because he was blinded by the perception of progressive overreach. He also has a bit of a reputation for twitter toxicity and he later ended up with anxiety issues and consequently an addiction. It's hard for me to not see him as a cautionary tale of why to avoid getting wrapped up in politics and the culture wars.
- stanrivers 6y ago
  Interesting on the Twitter front and that honestly is disappointing to hear. I thought the amount of involvement his daughter had on his podcasts was oddly commercial as well. I’ll go check out his Twitter. Agree - he has his failings for sure. I wonder if that makes him a good example or not... sometimes knowing that even those striving to do better do also fail is useful to humanize their message... similar thought with Cicero for example (vain despite his philosophies - not saying Peterson is in Cicero’s league). He seems to have recently turned a corner post the health issues. I wonder if he is going to approach things more quietly and more carefully this go around. Sounds like he is wanting to get busy.
- stanrivers 6y ago
  Another aside - thanks for the context. It’s always good to get a fuller picture. Something I was unaware of that I will look into - you can learn from both the good and the failings in others.

s4n1ty 6y ago

He isn't an "alt-right symbol", that was a smear used by people to discredit him who had no actual arguments. He has a massive following, the vast majority of whom have very moderate politics.