Jordon B. Peterson: The little known Canadian college professor who made his entre into the broader public perception by throwing down a public freak out over the use of pronouns and how to avoid being a complete piece of shit when you use them. That is to say, no one had ever heard of this deeply tormented individual until a law was proposed in Canada, C-16, recognizing the harassment of others, based on purposeful misuse of self-identifying pronouns, as harassment (um, because it is).
How-ever you might feel about gender and the issue of self-identification, that is to say, whether you are an archaic bigot or a decent, thinking person who wants to treat people with some sense of universal respect, one can logically deduce that the act of purposefully misgendering a person for the sole intent of disrespecting that person, is, eh hem, harassment. Jordon Peterson saw this logical evolution of human understanding and compassion as a threat. To what? Well, many can and have speculated: “White Privilege”. I’m inclined to agree. Peterson would talk you in disingenuous circles of disagreement, as he his oft known to do, but I think there are other, more unique to Peterson, issues at play other than his willful disregard for the reality of White Privilege. I wanna take a look at what I think those issues might be. And, yes, I use the word “issues” for more than one reason.
After Peterson burst onto the teary-eyed victim card scene with his gross misrepresentation of C-16, the rest of the world got our first glimpse into his seemingly complex set of ideas. He wrote one of those bullshit self-help books, and those Misogynists that were capable of reading bought it like it was the new Milo, but without all the “icky gay stuff”. He now sells out huge halls and, last told, was bringing down about 50k a month on Patreon. His little transphobic tantrum has treated him well, so far.
We are going to be taking a look at the basics of his schtick – what it is he has been tricking all these poor dumb fuckers with following his gross verminous slithering into the broader lexicon – and quickly explain why its utter and complete, baseless, donkey-shit. We will then move on to what effects his baseless donkey-shit rhetoric has on the broader discourse, with specific emphasis on those who feverishly follow him (see Incels and Men’s Rights Activists). And, we will then attempt to understand what could motivate someone to be this astoundingly awful.
I’m not going to be doing a deep deconstruction of Petersons alarmingly misleading concepts of “Cultural Marxism”, Socialism in general, Post-Modernism, Patriarchy, etc. because to do so, as others who have tackled his mountains of garbage have found, ultimately requires a series of pieces to properly explain not only his views, but how he has completely misconstrued the ideologies he is commenting on. Which then requires a tutorial on each of the issues he has misconstrued. That’s just too tedious a process for my purposes here, and there are a number of adept creators who have done a great job of it already (I would refer folks to Zero Books and Three Arrows on Youtube as well as Sam Seder’s Majority Report for a proper flogging of Peterson’s sad swamp of disingenuous lies).
The purpose of this piece is not necessarily to deconstruct Peterson’s crap, but to attempt to better understand why he has embraced it. So, we will be glossing over the bullet points of his hissy-fit world-view just enough to facilitate our ability to armchair-psycho-analyze this shitbag a little, and then see if there is anything useful to be learned from it.
Cultural Marxism
At the core of Jordon Peterson’s narrative is the notion that “Cultural Marxists” – which according to Peterson is essentially anyone who doesn’t ascribe to his defeatist world-view – have infiltrated, or joined forces, or been infiltrated by, or whatever, by the Post Modernists, (or vice versa?) Anyway, the short, simplified version is: the class struggle as described by Socialists such as Marx is, in Peterson’s… thingy, been “shrouded” in the Post-Modernist concept of Haves vs. Have-Nots, or simply the powerful vs. the powerless. But, at no point in Peterson’s blusterous career has he managed to tell us, though, just at what point, and just what specific Socialists, made this somehow nefarious and sneaky transition. I mean, can he point to when, say, cats like Chomsky, Zizek, and Dr. Wolff (insert well-known modern socialist here) got together, conspired, plotted, schemed, and came up with, “We’ll pretend to be Post-Modernists although we won’t ever actually act like it, and then, walla, women will become feminazis, and white men will be then able to blame all of their personal short-comings on said feminazis”? Seriously, Peterson, when exactly did that happen and how exactly did that imaginary transition then translate into every single person on the Left being somehow a part of it? It sounds incredibly fucking ridiculous because it isincredibly fucking ridiculous. At no point has there everbeen a transition of, or take-over of, one of these two schools of thought by the other. Its bullshit. But, if you tear past the surface of Peterson’s rhetoric you will find that exact bullshit assertion.
Peterson believes that all liberals, Progressives, Social Democrats, Socialists, Communists, Anarchists, Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, LGBTQ+ Rights Advocates, etc, etc, have been fooled by this nefarious scheme of Cultural/Post-Modernist/Marxist/whatever into caring about the equality they crave for all people, as opposed to them actually just caring about and wanting equality for all people. What’s more, the true “agenda” of the “Social Justice Warriors” is to make men slaves to so-called “Feminazis”. I shit you not. That’s what this hack piece of shit is crawling around the country on his Lobster Belly selling to ignorant, disaffected, pissed off white boys. Profiting off of their disaffected ignorance then in turn telling them its “Social Justice Warriors” fault the American Dream hasn’t panned out for them. It’s the “Cultural Marxists” fault Sally Popular Pants won’t give them the time of day. But, ultimately, what it all comes down to, is it’s all women’s fault (sic). And that’s where we enter his loyal stable of Incels and Mens Rights activists (but, we will return to them later).
For now, let’s move onto…
Peterson’s Perversion of Joseph Campbell and the Hero’s Journey
The Hero’s Tale, or the Hero’s Journey, as illumined by Joseph Campbell, is one of taking action, engaging the world, confronting its evil righteously and in turn learning from that experience. It’s a self-reliant journey of discovery, not just to the other end of the world’s greatest obstacles, but to the other end of our own inner struggles as well. And more importantly, how we take personal responsibility for the world around us and the part we choose to play or not play in it.
Jordon Peterson’s take on the hero’s journey is a sick, sad, convoluted, self-destructive perversion that rallies its warriors to inaction, self-pity and reactionary anger. Jordon speaks of the Underworld, and slaying of dragons, et al, in the traditional metaphorical sense of course, and in much the style popularized by Campbell. But, Peterson casts his heroes as having the Underworld thrust upon them, as opposed to something a proactive warrior engages purposefully. While Campbell’s hero seeks out the dragon, Peterson’s is suddenly confronted by it. While Campbell’s Hero mindfully seeks out and engages the chaos of the unknown, Peterson’s Hero finds himself forced into the midst of it, bereft of foreknowledge, as if abruptly awakened to some immediate existential dread.
Joseph Campbell tells us that Heroes find the wisdom they otherwise lack in the quest to engage the dragon, in the engagement of the unknown, in the struggle against the odds, in leaving the familiar and safe for the dangerous and the unknown. Peterson, in his ridiculous self-help book, tells his readers not to engage injustice until they have figured out all of their own personal demons. He, in fact, tells his followers that they need to clean their rooms.
He does give his followers a dragon to fear – The Social Justice Warrior/Cultural Marxists. But, he tells them only that they “must not stand for it anymore” – “it” being equality for all otherwise marginalized peoples, but more specifically women. What we thinking people, with an ability to empathies, understand clearly to be simply the struggle for equality for all, Peterson sees as a threat to some imaginary historic “divine” role of Patriarchy being all things somehow equal, under threat. What Campbell recognized as the fight for justice and wisdom so intrinsic to the long story of the search for the betterment of the broader human condition, Peterson sees as all he and his followers should be ultimately crusading against. Or, more precisely, cowering from and crying about. Peterson tells his followers they must tell the truth, but anyone espousing a truth that challenges his own, becomes the embodiment of the dragon, of chaos, of evil itself – The Social Justice Warrior.
What this glaringly hypocritical and emotionally stunted hack is doing, is couching his self-victimizing, defeatist view of some so-called “Heroic Patriarchy” in the ageless inspirational tales of the true Hero’s Journey. Peterson has taken a timeless understanding of self-sacrifice, courage, honor and universal truths for all people (regardless of gender or ethnic or national origin), and regurgitated it as some justification for, specifically, White Men to feel like suffering victims of some fucking imaginary oppression. And, I frankly fail to see how this is not, on some level, a purposeful perversion of Campbell meant to sell Peterson’s own self-loathing to his followers, thereby justifying it for himself on some even deeper more repressed level.
Incels Got Mad Love for Peterson
Involuntary Celibates, or “Incels” are, what the name clearly implies (guys who can’t get laid). But, upon closer examination we find something far less benign, something frighteningly angry, dangerous, reactionary and violent. These are people who not only believe that it’s not their personal fault that they can’t get laid, but that the entire world has literally conspired against them to make it so. Incels believe they have been oppressed by “Normies”, by what they call “Chads” and “Staceys” (aka, people who get laid), and they are convinced that any and all violent outbursts against society are justified as manifestations of their oppression. They are, in short, violent, sex-deprived terrorists.
As should not be surprising, Incels see no correlation between their deep-seeded misogynistic loathing of society in general, to their inability to attract a loving partner. Incels disassociate their own reactionary misanthropic tendencies from the responses such behaviors tend to garner, and they replace it with an even deeperhatred and loathing of society in general. Incels, therefore, are fertile minds for the likes of Peterson and his victim-card version of the Hero’s Journey. And, in light of Peterson’s recent support for the immensely disgusting concept of “Forced Monogamy”, the world of terrorist Incels have flocked to him accordingly in droves.
The Sad Cesspool That is Jordon Peterson
The astounding level of mental gymnastics behind literally all of Peterson’s ideas; the manner with which Peterson routinely justifies his notions on easily debunked interpretations of various schools of thought; the way with which he refuses to be saddled to any specific position; the way with which he posts livestreams of him sobbing over the so-called plight of men; the way with which he perverts the nature of the Hero’s Journey; the way with which he attracts the most grossly reactionary, misogynist and misanthropic elements in society, are all manifestations and symptoms of something deep, unaddressed and repressed on the part of Peterson.
I am obviously no trained psychologist, psychoanalyst, or clinical diagnostician by any stretch of the imagination, but I can clearly deduce by this man’s public behavior that he is deeply emotionally disturbed and hurting. This is a man who clearly has no command of his emotional faculties nor any want to discover the root cause of his emotional instability. Or, maybe, he in fact does know the cause of his sad depressing struggle but is unwilling to heed the Hero’s call to confront it?
It seems obvious to me, that his outburst in relation to C-16, and the subsequent 15 minutes it has brought him, not only brought him one hell of a lot of cash, but the spurious air of validation for his lack of personal accountancy, volition and action towards self-betterment. I am convinced that Peterson is smart enough and educated enough to understand that, upon any substantive scrutiny, his entire schtick falls apart as reactionary and counter-productive to actual personal growth. But, he’s making money, he’s selling books, he’s making waves and getting lots of attention. He’s milking it. And, that brings me to my most personal of assessments, and possibly most damning of assessments of Peterson.
I have reached the conclusion that Peterson feels justified in his lies. Again, I am asserting that Peterson doesn’t actually believe his own garbage lies, but he does believe he deserves to profit from them. In other words, “It’s Peterson’s turn, and he is gonna get him some! The world has shit on Jordon B. Peterson long enough, and it’s his turn to do the shitting and get some fame and recognition.” It’s a gross exploitation of suffering, ignorant and confused young minds for the purpose of personal self-fulfillment. Jordon B. Peterson is the very worst kind of White Privileged, reactionary, selfish pieces of crybaby crap the West has to offer, and this writer is convinced he knows it and doesn’t care. I hereby invite Peterson to prove that he is not knowingly inspiring a generation of dangerous, reactionary, Incel terrorists in the wake of his sad, diluted quest to fill the unaddressed and depressingly emptier sides of his otherwise pathetically unhappy existence.
Shame on you Jordon B. Peterson, your new suits aren’t worth any of the carnage you are knowingly causing, and Joseph Campbell would be utterly repulsed by your want to slather his legacy in the depressing, reactionary, cry-baby, white privileged Cesspool of shit you have built for yourself.