Six pages in N&D about a self help book author. Either Jordan Peterson is a master of self-marketing, or its 2018.

We need a new album. Like now

Is it too early for a Steven Pinker thread?

Genius or charlatan? What is Burt's take?

Too nice, but nice hair.

He has fucking beautiful hair. A true silver fox.

I'm a sucker for curls.

BTW I really think we need an IDW thread. In fact, we probably need a drafting tournament for intellectual dark web members. I got Eric Weinstein ranked first.

I agree but a ranking will be tough.

speak of the devil



What a couple of ABSOLUTE MORONS, amirite?!

Tyler Cowen calls him one of the 5 most influential thinkers in the west, and Tyler Cowen is not stupid.


I like J. Peterson, but Mr. "be precise with your speech" doesn't seem to understand that no matter how precise you are, it's not going to be taken the same way by everyone. He pushes too hard on these issues and then, like Sam Harris, reacts poorly to criticism before digging himself deeper. I heard him say long ago that his fame would end disastrously because he would say the wrong things and bring himself down. Maybe.

But the bulk of what he is doesn't have much to do with these issues. The way he speaks of how science and religion intersect, and the psychology behind it all is super interesting, if you're into that sort of thing. I've greatly enjoyed hearing him lecture on, basically, why we are the way we are. If anything, his lectures make me feel like I need to be more tolerant of everyone.

Loving that video, Burt. Thanks for posting. Rob, I concur; Peterson's lectures have helped inspire me to be a more responsible person, in general. It's confusing to hear these criticisms that he's motivating skin heads to action and the like. Ridiculous.

This is one of my major criticisms of Peterson as well, he doesn't eat his own dog food on a lot of the issues he speaks on, the pronoun one in particular.

And i agree with your second point as well. The following Peterson has gained isn't about being trans-phobic or soft-right or whatever, it's that he is able to speak to young men (mostly) and articulate 'why' and 'how' their world is the way they perceive it and then give them simple ideas to change it. It's a very powerful message to people who are just floating through life. It's truly unfortunate that he seems insistent on arguing about things he doesn't understand, like the white privilege video post a bit back, because his meaningful contributions are getting lost in the reactionary media activities like what was in the NYT.

Conservatives often yearn for an earlier era, when things were supposedly better. The 1980s are currently in vogue with many conservatives. Many reach back even farther, to the halcyon days of the 1950s. There are even some still yearning for the 1850s, but that is hard to reasonably justify. Jordan Peterson reaches back farther than anyone, though, all the way to 550,000,000 B.C., before our evolutionary tree separated from that of the lobster. Oh, the good old days

He's not a conservative, first of all, and not yearning for good old days, or saying we should aspire to be like the lobster. The whole point of his lobster discussion is to point out the role serotonin plays in our systems, and that it's demonstrated in ancient animal hierarchies that when you're confident and hold your ground against conflict, serotonin levels increase and you feel better, thus, shoulders back, stand up straight, face your challenges with your heart exposed, not afraid of pain. And it's a bit of a vicious cycle when you're beaten down, cause you feel like shit and it's hard climbing out of that hole.

...but mine is funnier

Sorry... it's impossible to distinguish joke from a serious attempt at criticism of the man...

Jordan Peterson is absolutely a conservative regardless of who he specifically votes for and the fact that that's not abundantly obvious here pretty much explains the entire thread.

He is a classic liberal. Being against freedom of speech actually isn't a liberal quality, despite what the current state of the left will have you believe.

Sorry but again, you don't know what you're talking about. "Classical liberal" is just window dressing for "conservative". It's a term whose primary audience is people who know Ted Cruz sucks ass but are too stupid to see much beyond that. A classical liberal is someone who believes in a more or less entirely free market and small government--gee whiz, which political camp would you put that person in?