So over on Dalrock, people are agog at the attention paid to the Jordan Peterson interview. Same as here, I suppose. This is a fair example.
I have the impression that BDMG and Novaseeker are very different people; though, they’re both people I respect. They agree on at least one thing, which is their lack of a favorable impression of Peterson’s performance. They join a great number of other people, throughout the sphere, in expressing these opinions.
There are two points I ought to make here.
1. Peterson’s Revelations Aren’t Revelatory
They aren’t revelatory to us, because we’re grown men with developed psychic lives, goals and jobs. In short, they aren’t revelatory to us because they aren’t meant to be.
The people Peterson is trying to reach are young brothers, and he reaches them by symbolically occupying the psychic space that a father or grandfather would occupy in the development of a normal adolescent. People like BDMG and Novaseeker spend a lot of time in the ‘sphere, so I don’t know exactly why they don’t understand the inherent problem. We all seem to talk about young men growing up without fathers. Peterson is applying a solution, with the help of youtube.
If you’re an 18-year old man, whose life consists of internet pr0n, World of Warcraft, and pizza-flavored microwaveable meals, then Peterson’s act is revelatory. Peterson is probably the first person who has consistently told these young brothers to get up off their ass, go out and enjoy living in the world, and make something of themselves. That is a novel position, for a young man who has grown up in a single-mom house, with female public school teachers. The numbers suggest that our younger brothers have a definite need, and he’s filling it.
As Novaseeker cynically points out: He’s making a few bucks while doling out the sort of advice fathers and grandfathers used to give for free. So, what? Sue him.
2. Peterson is Adept at Pushing the Overton Window
He’s doing it at least as well as Donald Trump, in a country with no Trump equivalent.
The Ontario Provincial Government didn’t declare itself the Feminist Republic forty years ago, because it couldn’t. It has been a very long, slow slide into degeneracy, which has been accomplished over a period of decades, through a coordinated action which included both political figures, academia, and the mass-media. Our feminist overlords were very clever and careful to ease Canadians into the national gay bath house slowly, so as not to stir up any uncontrolled or organized opposition.
Peterson is singlehandedly pushing the narrative back toward sanity, and he’s doing it without the screeching or caterwauling that feminists have traditionally used. No normal person, who gives him a fair listen, is able to question his reason or motives. In this regard, he’s changing the way that Canadians, even the most pozzed out feminists among them, think about society and their place in it.
As an observation .. he has .. & possible will continue to .. persuade young-men to push-back the regular programming given them in one-track government schools. At the very least he is probably the first opposition voice they’ve heard in Oh’Can’Uh’Duh.
And this in turn .. leads to further growth in the manosphere. Which is good once again for everyone.
He’s not for our consumption (like you’ve mentioned) .. but as mentioned an audience that needs to take the first step.
And for whatever reason .. he’s not been censored .. that I know of .. yet. I guess if he gains to much mo-mint-um they will try to censor him. Which will only increase his curb-uh-peal to young-men.
IMHO he has hit critical mass .. good for him if he makes a buck or two. He should.
But as I said earlier .. as long as it is just enter’tain’mint & not promoting legal avenues to punish nom-maried men .. I’m glad he’s taking up the torch.
Call me when the pitch-forks are being assembled. ..
I’ve listened to literally tons of material from Jordan Peterson, and there’s a lot that I agree with, but I do not trust him
I think Novaseeker is right in his analysis, he’s an egalitarian at heart
Don’t get me wrong, he makes a powerful ally in our war against feminism, but I feel personally that Ben Shapiro would have handled that debate way better than Jordan did
Prof. Peterson may not be your True Redpillsman, but I think it’s encouraging to hear someone articulate things that have long been unsayable in polite circles (“Surtout, ne parlons par de l’affaire Dreyfus”). He’s confident, reasonable, and gentle but firm, a style to imitate in my opinion and an inspiration. I speak as one who sees real and personal and immediate negative consequences of simply dropping epistemological p?tards, because it’s a long, slow process to warm those around you up to the ideas. We have to persuade, not dictate, and let people reach correct conclusions on their own although we can help them get there.
If anyone in the sphere is like me, he would have come here through some of personal crisis, as it were a Damascus Road experience, but even a Damascus Road experience is no guarantee of conversion. Some of the most inveterate blue pillers that I know are men who’ve been raked over the divorce coals; they will never be convinced that their problems weren’t because they simply didn’t [fill in blank] enough. People remain firmly anchored to and vested in their worldview absent some incentive to change; facts and the truth of a matter are never the issue. When I converted to Christianity, I was pressured to evangelize and witness to everyone I knew for the sake of the Kingdom. Not only does that not suit my personality, but I overestimated people’s interest and quickly realized that the heavy handed approach is a turnoff to most people.
I would just love to actually sit in one or a few of his classes. I think those of us who did attend college or university are a bit “reflective” on him. We all can probably name a professor or two from our college years that challenged us to think, and they had that classic “liberal arts” way of teaching that just inspired. I like him.
I have no problem with him making money through other means…be it publishing, speaking engagements, his online test / battery (which I took).
He’s not going to be “the one” to propose changes in legislation. He’s not going to be “the one” to push back. He’s going to be the intellectual inspiration, the theorist………the guiding light so to speak. He’s very into “you” and “improving yourself”
I like his classic, mild mannerd Canadian nature. It shows that one doesn’t have to brutish, or tough…but you have to have to ask the right questions, and give the correct answers that can be backed up……..and he does do that well.