Sunday, October 28, 2018

Vox Day slams Jordan Peterson

Vox Day writes:
Jordan Peterson is believed by many to be the greatest thinker that humanity has ever known. He is Father Figure, Philosopher-King, and Prophet to the millions of young men who are his most fervent fans. He is the central figure of the Intellectual Dark Web, an academic superstar, and an unparalleled media phenomenon who has shattered all conceptions of what it means to be modern celebrity in the Internet Age.

But Jordan Peterson is also a narcissist, a charlatan, and an intellectual con man who doesn't even bother to learn much about the subjects upon which he lectures. He is a defender of free speech who silences other speakers, a fearless free-thinker who runs away from debate, difficult questions, and controversial issues, a philosopher who rejects the conventional definition of truth, and a learned professor who has failed to read most of the great classics of the Western canon. He is, in short, a shameless and unrepentant fraud.
Peterson is not what he appears. How can he be a professional psychologist and not understand that Christine Blasey Ford suffers from a serious mental illness?

He is not really a conservative or a right-winger. He just stubbornly doesn't like being told what to say. People think that he is a real-talker because he acknowledges that there are differences between men and women. But those differences were recognized in nearly all of recorded history, and by scientific research today.

He got a lot of fame for objecting to transgender pronound mandates, but he doesn't really take a principled stand on the issue. He was just saying what most professors would have said a few years ago. It is remarkable that so few professors will advocate independent thinking, but maybe Peterson is just an old curmudgeon who has not adapted to the changing academic climate.

He now has a cult following that makes him $5M per year.

Peterson is a big fan of Jung, Solzhenitsyn, Dostoevsky, and Nietzsche. Is that why it is so popular? I don't think so. I think people like his style when he tells them to stand up straight and clean up their rooms. He talks about how order is better than chaos, and people find it inspiring.

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