Is Jordan Peterson a fraud?

I originally gave his ideas a listen after a recommendation from a friend following the Cathy Newman interview. I read his book and watched some of his videos too. His self-help stuff seems genuinely useful but aha... he is not just a self-help guru because he has politics. I'll be more specific... he has very very bad and very stupid politics.

Someone needs to explain to me how Post-Modern-Neo-Marxism is supposed to work. I've read Marx and some post-modernism and they are not mutually compatible. Post-modernism is a fringe faction within social-science academia which is critical of power and also grand narratives, universal truth, and positivism. I don't get what it has to do with political correctness or a desire to define people as victim groups. I also don't get how it was supposed to take over the world, regain its Marxist aspects and also stay a fringe faction within social science academia.

I also don't get how Peterson can define all things he does not like as collectivist as therefore linked to Stalinism. Trans-gender activists apparently have the 'same philosophy' which has killed millions of people. The Google HR department is the same thing too. 🤷

What Peterson is doing is producing the same silly right-wing conspiracy theories and straw-man arguments of Glenn Beck and Alex Jones whilst repackaging it with a fake intellectual mystique. He might be a talented academic psychologist but his understanding of political theory wouldn't pass undergraduate standard. He doesn't use sources and his arguments do not hang together. I struggle to think that he does not understand the flaws in his own arguments.

He speaks confidently and he speaks well. He is an excellent clinical psychologist and his videos probably help turn some people's lives around. Its because of this he is a snake charmer who fools people who should know better into being uncritical of his very weak political ideas.

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Helganvisari25 · 51-55, M

I don't believe he's a fraud. However, he tends to set himself up as an authority on subjects he has not really researched thoroughly. For instance, he angered many MGTOW and Incels when speaking to some students in one of his lectures. That always been the knock on him.

Burnley123 · 41-45, M

@Helganvisari25 He is likely to tell incels and MGTOW people to 'man-up' and 'sort themselves out'. I think his Darwinist nature is consistent with slagging them off. I said consistent, I don't agree with his Social Darwinism.

Yes, he definitely pretends to be an expert on many things. When he is attacking the left, he defines positions that almost nobody has ever agreed with and then knocks them down. His fan-boys then post a video on Youtube saying that he 'owned' then left.

Helganvisari25 · 51-55, M

He actually did tell them to do that very thing and it angered them very much. Countless videos were made by many MGTOW correcting him on his mistakes. I like him because he does such a good job angering leftists. And that is something I pay full price for. However, you are right in that he is given too much credit for so-called "owning the left."

Burnley123 · 41-45, M

@Helganvisari25 I'm not into the MGTOW thing. I'm a single guy but I think that MGTOWs are trying to find political justifications for their life problems. The problems don't deserve to be mocked and that is what society does. However, I don't see hating feminism as the answer. Some types of feminist?...maybe.

For me, you believe in equality or you don't. People should focus on helping each other.

Helganvisari25 · 51-55, M

You speak a lot of truth about some MGTOW, but not all. You will be able to tell the difference between the problematic MGTOW and those who are really "Going Their Own Way" The fact is, real MGTOW are actually not making youtube videos and are just doing their own thing. I agree with you that they should not hate feminism. I pity feminists, in fact.

Burnley123 · 41-45, M

@Helganvisari25 I think our personal psychology does inform our politics and that is one of the very few things Peterson gets right LOL. I think in a rational and mutually beneficial world, the angry young men and women on the internet would meet each other and have babies. Not gonna happen anytime soon though. 😂

GeistInTheMachine · 31-35, M

@Burnley123 Ah, I went through a MGTOW/Anti-Feminist/Gamergater phase after a particularly nasty breakup several years ago.

Fun stuff... I eventually snapped out of it and started dating again.

There's some wisdom and good advice for men in the overall MGTOW thought/ideology, but the racism that stemmed from the rise of the alt-wrong and 2016 election helped to push me away from MGTOW.

That, and the YouTube videos became stale.

Just rehashing the same things over and over about women, divorce, breakups and dating:

Anger, shock, longing, sadness, loneliness... Ad nauseam.

It all led to me feeling ennui towards the "movement," or whatever it is/was.

I have no idea as to the state of MGTOW currently. I imagine it's ugly.

It's funny. I'm processing a semi-recent breakup currently, and I feel no pull to go back to my old MGTOW ways.

Much of MGTOW is just thinly-veilled misogyny.

Misanthropy is where it's at.

Burnley123 · 41-45, M

@GeistInTheMachine I completely agree. I think MGTOW is kind of the most honest but least self-aware of rightish Youtube cults. It basically admits its problem is women but dresses it in political narrative. I think the rest of the online right do something similar but don't dive as deep, or are less explicit about the real reasons for their anger.

I've always kind of been a leftist so I was never tempted by these things, fortunately. I have flirted with anti-feminism (lefty-pol or whatever it would be called now) and yes it was because of a girl.

I think the important thing is to have self-awareness and understand that your shit doesn't always have political causes.