I've read quite a few articles on Jordan Peterson, the Canadian psychologist whose words reached those who seldom read long articles nor books: young men.
What was it that made young guys like him?
I recently saw a video interview with Noam Chomsky where he was asked what he thinks of Jordan Peterson. Chomsky waved the matter away with the mention of a journal article by Nathan J. Robinson, titelled The Intellectual We Deserve.
Jordan Peterson.
Robinson tackled Peterson's work in depth and came to this conclusion:
But, having examined Peterson’s work closely, I think the “misinterpretation” of Peterson is only partially a result of leftists reading him through an ideological prism. A more important reason why Peterson is “misinterpreted” is that he is so consistently vague and vacillating that it’s impossible to tell what he is “actually saying.” People can have such angry arguments about Peterson, seeing him as everything from a fascist apologist to an Enlightenment liberal, because his vacuous words are a kind of Rorschach test onto which countless interpretations can be projected.
Robinson, Nathan J. 2018. “The Intellectual We Deserve.” Current Affairs. March 14, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20200317110138/https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/03/the-intellectual-we-deserve.
Peterson suddenly went away, amidst all of his home-made hubbub.
Until one day when his daughter posted a YouTube video.
What was Peterson doing in a drug-induced coma in Russia? Based on interviews with medical professionals and a close reading of various statements that Mikhaila and Peterson himself have made on podcasts and social media, it is clear that Peterson ended up in Russia after an extended battle to wean himself off clonazepam. And it seems likely that Peterson, a self-proclaimed man of science, succumbed to the lure of a quack treatment—with devastating consequences.
Beyerstein, Lindsay. 2020. “What Happened To Jordan Peterson?” The New Republic. March 10, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200317110248/https://newrepublic.com/article/156829/happened-jordan-peterson.
To see a human being suffer is horrible.
To see a human being try and peddle his snake-oil rules which turn the heads of young men is tragic.
To see the snake-oil peddler fall victim to familiar snake-oil peddling is tragic and Darwinian. He fell on his own sword. You could say he lives like he spoke, but he didn't.
Peterson spoke of adhering to rules. He doesn't live by them. He claimed to stand by science but didn't, and, as a result, abated himself. His followers exalt and seldom question his words, which is ridiculous, because it's impossible to follow him; see The Intellectual We Deserve.
I wish Peterson all the best and good luck.
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://niklasblog.com/?p=24374