What I Learned Criticizing the Mythic Jordan Peterson
I put his name in the title, knowing his fans would come out of the woodwork; here’s how it went
I recently wrote a piece about Jordan Peterson entering the global warming discourse. He said some ridiculousness, and I wanted to respond. By throwing shade at such an idealized figure, I knew what I was doing. I knew his name would generate some action and that his followers would dive into my comment section, and I was right on both counts.
But it was more chill than you might think, partially because I ignore the madness and engage the reasonable voices; we don’t have to agree with one another to have a respectful exchange of opinions — I am often wrong, that’s okay.
For those who know who he is, Jordan Peterson is a man that evokes a big response. There are either the dudes — 99% of the time — who are follow-him-to-the-grave die-hard fans, and then there are people like me who roll their eyes and don’t understand how people listen to his manner of speech and conservative takes for more than thirty seconds.
In my view, his fans get way too defensive. Jordan Peterson himself, in a spitting rage, is constantly calling people and ideas stupid — and even flirting with promoting violence (19:58). So, of course, people…
