To ask what your opinion is of Jordan Peterson?

[ethelfleda]

I’ve heard his name a few times now, mainly people saying he is dangerous but that friends of theirs have started raving about him.
I only know what I have read within a guardian article (which I know is a biased source) but he does seem dangerous.
I thought I would ask the MN collective their opinion...

He's not a friend to women.

I'm far more concerned about the number of people who think people voicing opinions they don't like is dangerous and that they should be suppressed and oppressed. I think they're by far the greater danger to all of us.

100% agree with this.

One of my male relatives, who isn't generally a mysogynistic or right-wing type, seems to quite like Jordan Peterson. After he kept coming up in conversation, I had to look Peterson's work up and read / watch a bit online to get a feel for what he is or isn't saying and why he has been involved in some recent controversies.

I came away with the impression that I don't have any great problem with much of his work. He does seem to have the following of some pretty rabid and nasty types online and in real life. Is this his fault? Probably not, but if I were him I would want to do more to shake off associations with people who seem to hate women, or other races and religions. I also think that anyone going down the rock-star academic and author route should have better people around him (PR, assistant or someone with half a brain and their eyes open) who can stop him from doing things like inadvertently having his photo taken with someone wearing a "Proud Islamophobe" T-shirt.

I wasn't interested enough to go any deeper than this. Others might know more.

I've only seen a couple of his YouTube videos and I think a lot of what he says makes sense, especially about woman and work choices.

He’s not “dangerous” OP but he is a disgusting misogynist with a rabid incel fanbase.

Oh here’s an old Reddit thread with some examples OP (this is fairly old so I’m sure there are many more examples since this one)

www.reddit.com/r/enoughpetersonspam/comments/8kuaze/petersons_misogyny_a_collection_updated/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

@araiwa. That's bullshit. Most of the stuff online has been taken down now (such as the posts suggesting that not eating at all for 12 days or more has had massive health benefits for her when she's already underweight) but you will still find shit such as images showing that an empty plate is better than eating, that you can 'heal' (ie, cure) autoimmune disease through only eating meat and salt, lots of things suggesting that stuff like faulty heart valves are fixed by only eating meat, she makes comments such as her Mum has cancer and 'Somehow, she recovered magically', constant retweeting of posts that would be illegal if she were to directly put her name to them, etc, etc.

Essentially, she now makes a fortune from her eating disorder.

Autoimmune diseases suck balls big time (I know that from experience), but they can and do relapse and remit from time to time, particularly when pregnant - before it was all scrubbed from the internet prior to the latest paying site, her main argument was that after she got better - with conventional medicine involved - she got worse just before she got pregnant and then got better. Which is perfectly normal in pregnancy. Fuck all to do with starving yourself, it's how the immune system, even a crappy one, works to stop miscarriage.

It's just as dysfunctional and unethical to suggest that only eating meat (eggs and a couple of other things to now avoid prosecution) as it is for other influencers with EDs to suggest that only eating a hundred bananas a day, cures all known ills. But there's a fuckton of money involved in convincing people that you don't have an eating disorder and you've actually found a magical cure for Everything.

The fact that he indulges and supports that shit, when it's his own child that is going to crash and burn in a big way, makes him insane even before you look into his targeting the incel market, much as the ex doctor who is responsible for Measles, Rubella and Mumps deaths and disabilities makes a fortune from appealing to the anti medicine brigade and David Icke makes a fortune from appealing to the conspiracy theorist-with a side order of psychosis market.

I'm far more concerned about the number of people who think people voicing opinions they don't like is dangerous and that they should be suppressed and oppressed. I think they're by far the greater danger to all of us

😂 OP he threatened to sue professor Kate Manne because she gave his book a bad review & called him a misogynist. “Muh free speech” haha ok. As long as you aren’t mean to him.

www.thecut.com/2018/09/jordan-peterson-threatened-to-sue-feminist-critic-kate-manne.html

I like him! I read his book “12 rules for life” and loved it. Not everyone’s cup of tea I know, but I find him to be a very interesting guy.

Not sure why people think he's dangerous. I can only assume they haven't actually listened to him, only select parts picked out to 'prove' he's dangerous. I agree with some things he says, others not so much. On the whole I like him.

Why anyone would take life advice from this man I don’t know. He’s a mess. He’s been on meds his entire life, he can’t even help himself. He just got out of rehab for abusing benzodiazepines.

He's one of those people who've forgotten that it's important to be kind as well as being right.

I'm far more concerned about the number of people who think people voicing opinions they don't like is dangerous and that they should be suppressed and oppressed. I think they're by far the greater danger to all of us

This is a very good point.
On the extreme end of the scale, you could say that about Hitler though - that he was just a guy with views different to a lot of people’s. I think speech and language is a very, very powerful tool that can be used for good or for bad. The right combinations of words to the right people (or, wrong people if you like) can have catastrophic repercussions.
However, this is an extreme version and I agree that Jordan Peterson probably shouldn’t be considered within the same category. I think me using the term dangerous was me listening to my natural propensity towards the left.

That and this article seem to have finished the fraud.

www.currentaffairs.org/2018/03/the-intellectual-we-deserve

He’s a lightning rod for irritated people to project their quota of ill temper onto in my experience. He just says a lot of stuff. Hardly dangerous and even if viewed through a negative lens he’s less dangerous than say Boris Johnson or Tommy Robinson.

He threatened to sue Kate Manne because she lied and said in his book he told a woman client who said she thought she might have been raped five times that she hadn't been raped. He didn't actually say that at all.

Free speech doesn't cover very easily exposed lies.

He threatened to sue Kate Manne because she lied and said in his book he told a woman client who said she thought she might have been raped five times that she hadn't been raped. He didn't actually say that at all

No she didn’t? And I’ve read that part in his book about the woman who’d been raped and it was deeply disturbing & showed a complete lack of empathy on his part. It was gross. And imagine a psychologist putting a confidential conversation like that in a book read by millions of people. Did the woman consent?! No he didn’t name her but she would know it’s about her. Absolutely disgusting man.

Imagine telling your therapist deeply personal things about yourself like you believe you’ve been raped & they without your consent put it in their hokey self help book.

I’m a dyed in the wool Guardian reading lefty and I think his 12 Rules is one of the most insightful and helpful things I’ve read in my life.

I'm a bit scared how much people take notice of 'influencers' these were people you don't take notice of but now we do o don't get it

I don't think he's very well informed about political theory/history. His analysis seems weak to me. Can't see why anyone would take it seriously.

I liked his close reading of Pinnochio and his Jungian lectures generally very much. The rest, non-lecture stuff: poor.

Not sure why he makes right on types so spitting mad.

Loads of psychologists have written the same kind of book. 🙄

She did say that. She accused him of gaslighting his client. What she didn't actually do was call him a misogynist, so you're wrong there too. The rest of your post is exactly what I was referring to. You don't like what he saying so you want him shut up and you're prepared to lie to do it...just like Kate Manne.

I’m a dyed in the wool Guardian reading lefty and I think his 12 Rules is one of the most insightful and helpful things I’ve read in my life

“Pet a cat” 👏 profound. Why take life advise from an absolute mess who’s been on meds his entire life & has just been in rehab for abusing benzos?

I like him because he challenges me and he was certainly partly responsible for not letting me fall down the far left hole (aka Corbyn)

I really loved his lecture on cain and Abel

She did say that. She accused him of gaslighting his client. What she didn't actually do was call him a misogynist, so you're wrong there too. The rest of your post is exactly what I was referring to. You don't like what he saying so you want him shut up and you're prepared to lie to do it...just like Kate Manne

You sound mental 😂 there’s absolutely no way you are a woman, you’re obviously one of his creepy incel male followers who probably abuses the women his surrogate Daddy doesn’t like (Cathy Newman) on Twitter.

Ok just checked your post history & you’re clearly a man. Imagine being sad enough to join a forum full of mums pretending to be a woman. Honestly not surprised you’re a Jordan Peterson fan, you certainly fit the bill. An angry man with two much time on your hands. Mumsnet is supposed to be an internet refuge from people like you.

Amylox I take that back, you probably aren’t a man, I just find it hard to understand how any woman could be a fan of his given what a disgusting misogynist he is. I started off as liking him but the more I saw the more I was repulsed.