Someone close to me is being pressured into studying the works of Jordan Peterson.
I mostly know Jordan Peterson as a meme, and from Contrapoints excellent video. The red flags are all I know. So when I’m honestly asked what that guy is all about, I feel I have to at least watch the video they suggested. And while there are a hundred more useful ways I could have spent that half an hour of my life, I must admit I learned something.
The context seems to be some kind of paid-for event with a crowd. The crowd submits questions and a moderator-bot repeats them to JP, who then answers. And first of all I have to say, if I’d paid for a ticket to that, I’d feel extremely pissed off that he spends a full half-hour on just one question. Fifty bucks* and I only get four questions? Rip-off.
The second thing that jumps out: he does the Hitler pause. I’ve never seen anyone actually attempt that before, apart from the old man himself. That’s brash. I mean, steal from the best, sure. But if you wear a single jeweled glove, you better have moves. The idea is that you rock up to the lectern all ready to speak, and then you just sorta stand there like a muppet for thirty seconds looking like you forgot your reading glasses or something. And everyone’s wondering, what’s up? We were promised something great and he just looks sad and lost? But it’s faith training. The true believers say to themselves “it’s fine, this is just a ploy, wait for it”. And then… that’s exactly what it is! He starts mumbling something dull, but in a couple of minutes he’s ranting and raving and bringing down the house. And all the followers who guessed that would happen get a little dopamine hit, teaching them to never question the leader no matter how the situation looks.
JP screws up his eyes like he’s thinking really, really hard about the question. He doesn’t completely commit to the bit though. Only 5 seconds. Amateur stuff. The question is “I’m a schoolteacher, how can I avoid being cancelled by the woke mob?” I’d probably have to screw up my eyes for a while before answering that one too. But I’m pretty sure JP has a script for that and he’s actually just thinking about where he can get a kebab after the show.
So next we get 12 minutes of persecution fantasy. Let me tell you what Stalin used to do. He’d strip you naked and drag you through the snow all the way to the gulag. And that’s exactly what happened to me. But I’m strong, probably the strongest person in the world, because it would never even occur to me to back down. I wouldn’t even know how. And that’s what you gotta do, fight. Everything matters more than anything and you can never stop to think or breathe, just attack. Let me tell you what Mao used to do.
And by this point I’m thinking, this is pathetic. Why am I watching this?
But then suddenly the script flips. You’re in a conflict at work, what should you do? Well, edit your CV. Yeah, I know it sucks, but just do it anyway. Find a few jobs to apply for, and apply for them. Can’t find anything? Then the problem is your lack of skills. Find an evening class and learn something new. Then you’ll have more options.
Huh. Thing is, I happen to be in a conflict at work myself right now. I laid out my problems to a few friends, said I was considering looking around for other options. They all said go for it. So I did. This is objectively good advice he’s handing out here.
But it goes deeper than that. The advice he’s giving has the effect of lowering the stakes for our schoolteacher. That exercise is gonna make them feel good, like they’re taking positive action, not just a passive victim. The other options they discover will give them some perspective. And that will make them more relaxed and accomodating in their job. Maybe they’ll realise that it’s not such a big deal if a couple of people are nitpicking their work. They’ll be in a much better position to compromise, in the end. It’s much less likely that they’ll feel like their back is against the wall, no way out but fight. It makes it less likely they’ll lash out and truly make themselves unemployable.
Of course you can’t tell me that out loud, because I’m right and they’re wrong and I’m not gonna compromise with assholes. But you can encourage the positive actions that will have the same effect, and that’s just as good. What’s more, I am introspective enough to realise that I may very well be the asshole in this story and backing down is not something I should rule out. That’s not out of the question for me. So it only takes a couple of minutes to give me that advice, and you don’t need to be a youtube superstar to make your point.
Jordan Peterson’s interlude of sanity is only a couple of minutes. After that it’s straight back to the slings and arrows, the woke conspiracy that can only tear down and destroy, for another 15 minutes, until he gradually winds down for the next question.
But I’m thinking, that’s pretty damn good. The followers of Jordan Peterson all say that he gets it, he knows what he’s talking about, and his advice really works. And that’s because he’s found the formula, the only way to get through to the unadulterated nutbags that trail after him. He can wrap his tiny pill of common-sense advice in a giant ball of conspiracy theory gaffa tape, and people will swallow the whole thing in one gulp. And then they really feel better! Because there’s good medicine in there! Deep, deep down in the tangled mess of crap.
I have no idea if Jordan Peterson is consciously aware of any of this. I very much doubt it.
Of course, the trouble here is that he’s not just tolerating the madness, he’s encouraging it. At some point these people will need to have their faith let down like a punctured balloon. The duty of care is to do that earlier rather than later. Jordan Peterson doesn’t give a shit about his duty of care, let alone the damage he’s doing to the rest of society. He cares about his speaking fees.
I don’t need half an hour of friends telling me to update my CV. I get it already. I also don’t need people to pretend that my back’s against the wall. I’m very well aware that I’m absurdly privileged and all my problems are insignificant. I told my friend I was going to have to lay out an ultimatum, and they said don’t do that. So I didn’t. It’s that easy. That’s because I prefer facing reality to dangling over the precipice of madness. Which is always the first step to take if you are worried about being stakeburned by the woke mob.
Anyway, I think the person close to me has been sufficiently vaccinated against Jordan Peterson. “So you’re saying he’s opposed to all the liberal principles of tolerance and inclusion I was taught since the 60s?” Yeah, if you’re even asking the question, I think you’re doing alright mate.
Which isn’t to say that the message sinks in. “Is that because they’re woke?” “No, we talked about this remember, I’m woke.” “Ah right, so they’re anti-woke?” “No… they’re woke too… everyone’s woke except Jordan Peterson.” “That guy! I still don’t understand why I have to watch his videos! It’s just weird…” Sigh.
* That’s a guess. Don’t tell me. I in no way want to know.