My opinion of Jordan Peterson has gone down.

@CountScrofula Alberta's most famous intelelectual.

@Burnley123 I had literally erased he's an Edmontonian from my brain. God this province produces some fucking nitwits.

@CountScrofula TBH, my distaste for this man is somewhat personal. My friend (who used to be a good guy) has gone from boring centre-left liberal to culture war wingnut largely because of this man. we don't really talk now but our last conversation was about how 'gender-critical' feminists are bullied by the woke elite (or not). I lost patience with my mate and mocked his bad arguments so much he cancelled me.

He was such a good person and smart man but got taken in by this internet culture-war bullishit.

@Burnley123 Losing a friend who became “radicalized” must be especially difficult. When the better argument no longer has a chance you know some other influence is at work.

May I ask if you think he felt alienated before his change? I’ve been listening to a podcast about Hannah Arendt, and am interested in her theory of loneliness, which seems like what used to be referred to as modernity.

@Burnley123 That's heartbreaking. It's easy to mock Peterson but I do get how he was so compelling to a lot of people and watching somone just fall into his insanity is hard.

@Human1000 He's not at all typical of what you would think. He's highly sociable and a bit of a womaniser. He's also highly educated and articulate. He is a contrarian and at least some of this comes as a reaction against social liberalism in London

One of the problems is that he takes at face value arguments that come from the right (ordinary people against the woke elite, crt gender critical feminists denied free speech) and doesn't see the agenda behind it. Peterson is key because he really did and does see this Canadian as both a centrist and an intellectual. My friend still sees himself as a liberal as defined against the 'radical left' he sees elsewhere in London.

London is so culturally liberal that it is possible to see it as post racist. So political alienation from 'woke' culture has something to do with it.

Other right-wing people I've met do fit the mould of angry outsider. I think that archetype is true but not in this case.

@Burnley123 I would find losing a friend to that framed thinking very distressing, sorry you experienced it

@Burnley123 I understand. Whatever criticisms there may be about “woke” culture, Peterson or other more obvious right wingers will inevitably lead one to wrong conclusions about those issues.