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Easy to critique the man, but the author's political angle gets in the way of his own ability to reckon with why JP is popular: he unabashedly speaks core truth

Easy to critique the man, but the author's political angle gets in the way of his own ability to reckon with why JP is popular: he unabashedly speaks core truths we know in a time filled with half-truths and an attack on binary meaning. What is fascinating is how his detractors are annoyed with how simple, old advice can ring true but are missing that no one with such digital reach is saying these "12 Rules for Life" out loud any more. I don't agree with Peterson's angles always but his ability to contend verbally with the pompous, blithe elites who have never been so disconnected from the middle class values is like a glass of cold water for his followers, or so I imagine.

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advael 3y ago
As the article points out, Peterson's use of words does more to position himself as a pompous elite than to contend with them in some intellectual sense. It's also nonsense to say that no one repeats old conventional wisdom anymore. It's pervasive in everything from our fiction to other public speakers to kitschy little home decorations or memes on social media. Peterson doesn't differentiate himself by having the "bravery" to say cliches - this doesn't even make sense as a premise, they have to be pervasive to strike us as cliches. He differentiates himself through targeting culture war issues to build a rabid fanbase and using any press he can get to build a cult of personality, and plays a little bit of intellectual defense through the plausible deniability of obscurantism. That last bit is most of what the article is trying to say (though it really does do so in a way that is a bit hypocritically long-winded)
indigo0086 3y ago
>What is fascinating is how his detractors are annoyed with how simple, old advice can ring true but are missing that no one with such digital reach is saying these "12 Rules for Life" out loud any more. Great point. I've heard many of his critics in passing criticize the "shallowness" of his advice of focusing on the self before going outward. They will then embrace highly complex (mostly political) theoretical non-advice simply because it embraces the individual spending time solving everyone else's problems. Already an easily identifiable red flag from these types. I think JPs fans unfortunately have through him been introduced to fringe characters that have advice only applicable to a small percentage of men and is far less simple and practical though, but which is a shame
tptacek 3y ago
This is a content-free critique. With minimal effort, anybody can reduce any issue to some binary; the choice of which binary framings we accept is virtually all the intellectual work, and appeals to "acknowledging binaries" are just ways of saying "I'm right because I obviously am" --- a rhetorical gambit ably wielded by any 9 year old.

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advael 3y ago

As the article points out, Peterson's use of words does more to position himself as a pompous elite than to contend with them in some intellectual sense. It's also nonsense to say that no one repeats old conventional wisdom anymore. It's pervasive in everything from our fiction to other public speakers to kitschy little home decorations or memes on social media. Peterson doesn't differentiate himself by having the "bravery" to say cliches - this doesn't even make sense as a premise, they have to be pervasive to strike us as cliches. He differentiates himself through targeting culture war issues to build a rabid fanbase and using any press he can get to build a cult of personality, and plays a little bit of intellectual defense through the plausible deniability of obscurantism. That last bit is most of what the article is trying to say (though it really does do so in a way that is a bit hypocritically long-winded)

indigo0086 3y ago

>What is fascinating is how his detractors are annoyed with how simple, old advice can ring true but are missing that no one with such digital reach is saying these "12 Rules for Life" out loud any more. Great point. I've heard many of his critics in passing criticize the "shallowness" of his advice of focusing on the self before going outward. They will then embrace highly complex (mostly political) theoretical non-advice simply because it embraces the individual spending time solving everyone else's problems. Already an easily identifiable red flag from these types. I think JPs fans unfortunately have through him been introduced to fringe characters that have advice only applicable to a small percentage of men and is far less simple and practical though, but which is a shame

tptacek 3y ago

This is a content-free critique. With minimal effort, anybody can reduce any issue to some binary; the choice of which binary framings we accept is virtually all the intellectual work, and appeals to "acknowledging binaries" are just ways of saying "I'm right because I obviously am" --- a rhetorical gambit ably wielded by any 9 year old.