Jordan Peterson

Not certain I would label Peterson’s views as unconventional. When reading Maps and 12 Rules it suggests to me that he wants us to believe and behave in ways consistent with the pre-1960’s conventions of thinking.

The old Ozzie and Harriet era comes to mind. When men were the traditional breadwinners and heads of households. Women were to be homemakers, and childcare domestics, standing behind their man. His biblical references in Maps about women’s roles suggests this. As does his pseudo scientific lobsters analogy about men’s and women’s biological behavior in 12 Rules.

Further, Peterson’s left and right brain dominance claims in Maps used to differentiate between the thinking of men and women had no significant scientific support. It was more paternal and old biblical than scientific. It was just a metaphor for light discussion purposes. Not factual as applied by Peterson.

Gareth Morgan in Imaginations cautioned about taking such metaphors literally. To do so was to adopt a distortion of reality. For example, to say king Richard was as ferocious as a lion, does not make him one literally. Peterson’s suggestion that men were more left brain than women was an attempt to go back to the old traditional gender roles, and not “unconventional.”

Furthermore, Peterson associates men’s behavior with order and “an anecdote to chaos,” and such chaos attributed to women’s behavior in 12 Rules. I was then expecting Peterson to say that men could not be hysterical, because men did not have a wandering womb.

Peterson put a whole new spin on the body politic. Please excuse my poor attempted pun.

His “not beautiful” tweet about Yumi Nu, the Asian American curve model featured on 2022 annual swimsuit cover page of Sports Illustrated, was very telling.

Why body politic? Peterson added after his disparaging comment about a woman’s body: “And no amount of authoritarian tolerance is going to change that.”

Peterson’s Maps and 12 Rules books fall into the self help genre. How helpful was his tweet about this woman’s body? How empathetic was his comment for the millions of women about the world who struggle with body image? And this comment from a person claiming to be educated and a practitioner of clinical psychology.

Or was this yet another attempt to draw attention to himself by making a controversial tweet?

Peterson attempts to ride on the tail of the so called culture war. The latest spin title of attention seekers.

Peterson suspended from Twitter. Due to his tweet about transgender actor Elliot Page’s breast surgery. Wonders how these comments fit into Maps or 12 Rules?

Granted, Peterson’s 2 books sell to the male self help genre. But he also lectured, videoed, and interviewed in areas that pertains to the larger philosophy of life issues, including a somewhat superficial epistemological discussion on the origins and practices of male and female gender identities, language, and practices.

“Throwing red meat to your fans...” Was this a double entendres to Peterson’s earlier diet recommendations?

@NiceFella

Obviously, Peterson is not qualified in meteorology by education, research, or experience. Does this make you wonder why he steps away from his discipline to make unqualified, controversial, and sensational statements?

Culture Wars would be a great topic in our Philosophy forum. A new OP. It has philosophical antecedents and contemporary expressions. You mentioned this with Bismarck and the unnamed more recent user.

This is a discussion forum. It’s OK to link something here about Peterson. But you should also discuss it. Perhaps why you think the link contains a good spoof.

The DailyWire+ now features Jordan Peterson. They claim he is just getting started. From the show topics listed, he appears to be an expert on everything.

To what extent did his recent comments about Russia and its war against Ukraine exemplify his personal rather than professional male oriented self help philosophy? Or was this just another attempt to draw attention to himself by saying something controversial?

“Russia vs Ukraine or Civil War in the West.” Peterson interviewed about 2 weeks ago. It appears that he is now claiming to be an expert in foreign affairs and war.