Jay said:
I recommend anyone reading articles about Peterson actually read or listen to Peterson instead. I don’t agree with everything he says (like a lot of the religious-based theory), but is that a reason to discount him completely? The biggest issue with discourse today is that we throw away entire people because we don’t agree with one or two things they say.
I’ve disagreed with everything he’s ever said.
He’s been portrayed as an anti-Semite (despite lecturing extensively about the dangers of fascism as it relates to the Holocaust and the lessons to be learned from it),
Can’t speak to this. I know nothing about it.
a misogynist (despite presenting some of his most touching points while talking about how much he treasures his wife and daughter),
He says women that don’t want to be harassed are hypocrites if they wear makeup. He believes they’re responsible for procreating. He laments the fact that he can’t get away with hitting “crazy women” when they compare him to Nazis. He thinks “enforced monogamy” will stop mass shootings. There’s many more, but women have every reason to think that Peterson is not someone that has their interests at heart.
a fascist (despite his entire platform being free speech and vehemently anti-fascist)
He constantly advocates violence over mere words. His response to the Times article was to say that he wanted to slap the author. He also has advocated violence towards socialists. Also, “enforced monogamy” sounds incredibly fascist to me. He’s very authoritarian at heart. His self-help book is basically just a list of edicts for others to follow.
The Vibe interview, which was heavily edited for broadcast, made Peterson look crazy. At least watch the unedited version (available on YouTube) before coming to any conclusions. I don’t agree that he was saying women are hypocrites for wearing makeup; he simply acknowledged what makeup is at its core (something that enhances attractiveness by simulating good health through clear skin and replicating aspects of sexual response, like rosy cheeks) and why that might confuse some men.
Even if I were to concede that the only reason women wore makeup was to appear attractive, that’s no excuse for “confused” men. If I see someone with makeup on that I find attractive, I never assume that they are trying to appear attractive to me specifically. They could want to appear attractive to their own partner, or someone else at work, or maybe they just like the way they look with makeup on. Not committing sexual harassment is the simplest and easiest thing in the world.
There’s a huge gap between what Peterson says and what others say he says. Disagree with his ideas all you want, but don’t form your opinions about people based entirely on what other people say about them, especially with so much material freely available.
I certainly haven’t done that. His worldview is totally antithetical to my philosophy by which I live, and that’s based on what he’s said, not what others have said about what he’s said.
I used to be fairly hard left, but after seeing the massive discrepancies between mainstream reporting about some of these supposedly “alt-right” personalities and what the subjects of their articles actually say and do, I’ve started to wonder what other things we’re being told that are complete horseshit, or at least are being run through a left-leaning political filter. It seems like anything to the right of socialism is being cast as alt-right in an attempt to lump it all together.
This is not true. Socialism, as we saw in the election, was quashed by the supposedly fringe-left mainstream media in favor of the centrist corporate candidate Hillary Clinton. There was no leftist candidate available in the 2016 election other than Jill Stein who was not going to win. As for your alt-right comment, I actually don’t see much difference between the alt-right and the normal right. It’s a lot more openly racist and regressive, but it’s basically just modern-day Republicanism amped up to a frightening extreme. And the right hasn’t distanced itself from it at all.
I’m not a Trump supporter by any means, but holy hell have liberals lost their minds since he was elected.
“liberals lost their minds”? Every single one of them? I mean, if they did it’d be kind of fair given that Trump is the most illiberal president in about a century, but how have they lost their minds? What are they calling for now that is so much crazier than what liberals were calling for five years ago?