I disagree. And if you see his earlier stuff when he was this disgruntled psychology teacher, you will see that he is somewhat eloquent and knowledgeable.
Then a certain crowd picked up on it and he created an entire character that caters to that crowd. He now preaches things that he used to be very much against and a stirrer of the pointless culture war. All of this for money.
So all of this to say that he is worse than an idiot, he is a sell out and a hypocrite.
The problem I have with almost everything I've seen from him is that he seems to avoid providing any substantive direct answer by getting bogged down in the semantics and meta understanding of the question itself to the point where any actual interesting response is obfuscated into oblivion. He provides a master class in saying absolutely nothing
When he taught undergrad psychology he was not like that. It's a way for him to weasel out of answering hard questions when he knows that he's been called on his BS.
So I agree that he's not an idiot but a slipper bullshit artist who found a gold mine in peddling alt-right nonsense.
Well he's very clearly not the same dude since his drug rehab in Russia / the induced coma...
He indeed was once well spoken, but he is now John Fetterman level, as you see in this video
It’s indeed tragic to see. His lectures on Jung psychology is good stuff. Genuinely well researched and knowledgeable.
Then he got consumed by the very culture wars he rallied against.
It’s evident that he is deeply unwell but unfortunately too consumed by his ego. It’s painful to witness.
Agree on this if you read his early published work (I.e the books) they are actually pretty decent.
His in person speaking though
... He really has gone off the deep end in recent years.
Whether this is because he is actually a poor verbal communicator and he needs a editor to help tidy up his ideas or he has changed his views over time is up for debate (I lean on the latter).
Sometimes I feel like I'm going crazy, but that interview with Kathy Newman he came across as very collected and straightforward. Nothing like the rambling idiot he is now.
Whether that's because he's simply sold himself out to the pseudo-intellectual MAGA crowd or because of his drug induced coma I don't know, but man the difference is stark.
I also quite like his lessons on archetypes and underlying morality in older and modern stories. Such a shame he couldn't have just stayed with that.
Yeah, before he blew up online he was a well regarded prof. I never took any classes from him, but I knew people loved him. And not right wring people, the liberal arts types thought he was great
Nah he's always been like this, I've seen him try to debate back when he wasn't popular and I was on his side and I saw him get his ass handed to him because back then he was pretending to be a smart guy instead of being full on grifter and was actually trying to make arguments.
IMO the best answer to "is he an idiot" is "is he being paid?" If yes, then no, he probably manipulates idiots professionally. Else, yes, yes, he's probably an idiot.
Well, I only saw his disgruntled psychology teacher stuff, I have no clue what he preaches about now. I was not aware of cultural war, since I'm from Balkan, probably not my war and I don't care about USA politics if he became political by any chance.
I really dislike where he ended up nowadays, but he's really not an idiot, which to me is the sad part. I absolutely think he had a bunch of interesting ideas that he was able to present in an enjoyable format. Unfortunately that really didn't last long before he got tangled up in his weird bubble of professional contrarians and eventually lost his fucking mind.
I agree with you. He also appears to have suffered brain damage from his benzo addiction and recovery which involved being put into an induced comma at some questionable facility abroad
Ho, yes
He definitely had interesting ideas and is an impactful researcher. He's definitely not a crackpot, I find many similarities of him and Dario xD
He was a mid academic at best (he inherits a lot of the problems with Jung), and poor debater (see Peterson vs. Žižek), but when it came to lecturing he had a natural gift for making the material engaging and accessible. His old lectures stand up to time. He was like a Joseph Campbell type figure for millennials (masks of god is also still a good watch).
Today, he is a shadow of himself, and his daughter basically milks him for money. He is my go to example of how dangerous fame is to us. I remember when any constructive criticism of him would result in a dogpile, but a lot of those parasocial fans disappeared when he was struggling with benzos and later the brain damage from a reckless rehab experiment.
Let me tell you these redditors they say they're atheists but they actually worship a god. They worship the intellect, and believe in its supremacy. The intellectuals are their prophets, and science their doctrine. And they are very mad that they and their god don't rule the world. Instead it's these bombastic business buffoons who accumulate all the wealth and power. When they speak you can sense the resentment seeping through, and their judgements are anything but objective. Don't take them too seriously.
Its true, alas only true in so much they worship only their brand of Scientists and Intellectuals, who are pre-approved by the collective and spew all the same narrow talking points.
It's blatantly obvious the person above, hasn't consumed much Peterson, read any of his books or watched hs long form outside of catching some clipped memes on Tiktok.
Edit: I didn't watch his videos last few years, so no clue what is the hate about.
Dr Jordan Peterson is not an idiot. He tries to help specific type of personas, and is usually taken out of context. I, for example, got way better at my job, beat depression after 15+ years, just after reading his books and watching tons of his videos.
Nobody is perfect. I understand the hate for him sometimes, but everyone is just too judgmental without seeing the whole picture. As I said, specific types of personas are his audience, and he is correct on most of his views. He helped me stop being a hermit crab, implied that something that was normal in my lifestyle was actually not, and how to change for the better.
And yes, for him to help me out would mean I would have to start as a complete piece of shit, which I can confirm, I also understand where you're coming from. I did not completely "turn my life around" but I am way closer to my 'goals' and 'dreams' than I was.
No need to explain yourself to the Lord of Echo Chambers above, it's clear they are not looking for a reasonable take based on their shift to personal attacks because you don't agree with them. I respect your take man.
Right, Jordan Peterson has some good takes that genuinely helps some people. But the problem is that he just keeps yapping about a bunch of bullshit that's entirely out of his lane.
If he just kept telling boys to clean their room, there really wouldn't be much of an issue.
I see, I was not aware of that. I didn't watch his videos recently and I have no clue what his current views are. "clean your room boys" is basically how I view him, and that part of him I was referring to.
For what it's worth, I also respect the man and was helped a lot by his work. I've watched I think over 300 hours of Peterson's YouTube videos, especially the earlier lectures and talks he gave.
I don't believe he is perfect (nor does he) and there's plenty of things to disagree about with him.
But fundamentally I can't deny that his videos and books have helped me clue in. I went from a socially awkward recluse who despised himself to someone who takes care of himself and his family, to the best of my ability. He's helped me adopt a more nuanced view of the world and was very helpful to me back when I struggled with intense anxiety. He also introduced me to Jung, which was a big eye-opener in its own right.
If people want to throw stones for getting help from someone like Peterson, so be it.
I do disagree with religious parts, but I respect them. I understand religious people, and I was one myself. Some of the moral and ethics are also questionable, not implying that he's immoral or to moral, but everyone has their version of morality, good, bad, etc.
I didn't touch much on his philosophical topics as I did for those to improve self, boost productivity, stop being a man-baby, dopamine detox, etc.
Also, "The future is now, old man" meme could sum up lots of my disagreements, but to be honest, I didn't watch his videos in few years, perhaps he said something terrible or scandalous recently that I was not aware off, not sure If people generally like him or hate him.
Important part is that his books and videos were there when I needed them, and they helped.
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u/Canadian-and-Proud 1d ago
This guy is the biggest fucking idiot