Jordan Peterson?

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What are your thoughts on Canadian professor and psychologist Jordan Peterson?
 
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He seems to be very intelligent. And I hope he makes a full recovery from his battle with benzodiazepine addiction.
 
He’s not a Catholic, and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t belong to any particular church.
He is Christianity-positive, and I hear that some people are being intrigued to look into Christianity because of his speeches.

Like any other popular speaker, hear what he has to say, keep the good parts and ignore the wrong parts.
 
I rarely have time for or interest in non-Catholic religious speakers, and he’s done nothing special to get my attention.
 
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Haha.

No I just meant he has a positive attitude towards Christianity 🙂
 
He has a large following among young white men.

He’s not religious though and has even gone as far as to say that religions are useful myths that keep society in check.
 
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I find it useful to read and listen from a variety of different viewpoints and get a sense of where they’re coming from because when my young adult children bring these ideas up, I know where they heard it from.

JP has actually sparked some young people’s interest in Christianity, which I think is good.

At the same time, he does carry significant baggage because some of his ideas got co-opted by some more radical type young men.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
Why would any Catholic want to bother with an allegedly Christian speaker who talks like this?
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Why not? It’s a mark of intellectual maturity to engage with people you may not agree with 100%. I listen to Sam Harris’ podcast and find a lot of it worthwhile. I obviously disagree with him when the subject turns to religion, but the fact that he has what I think are erroneous views on religion doesn’t mean he has nothing worthwhile to say on any subject.

I mean, I wouldn’t look to Jordan Peterson as any kind of spiritual authority, but I don’t think that’s really what he’s interested in discussing anyway.
 
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RolandThompsonGunner said:
Why not? It’s a mark of intellectual maturity to engage with people you may not agree with 100%
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It’s also a mark of intellectual maturity to know that your time is precious and you need to spend it wisely, not just listening to every pop culture flavor of the month.

If I want to read stuff by non-Catholics, I’d rather read something by a truly great non-Catholic, such as Buddha. Heck, even if I made myself sit and read an issue of First Things (not usually my cuppa), it would be better than Jordan Peterson.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
It’s also a mark of intellectual maturity to know that your time is precious and you need to spend it wisely, not just listening to every pop culture flavor of the month.

If I want to read stuff by non-Catholics, I’d rather read something by a truly great non-Catholic, such as Buddha. Heck, even if I made myself sit and read an issue of First Things (not usually my cuppa), it would be better than Jordan Peterson.
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It’s fine to listen (or read, or whatever) and go “yeah, this person isn’t worth my time. There’s nothing here.” You just shouldn’t reject out of hand. How do you know if ideas are bad if you never hear them?

I’m not a Jordan Peterson fanboy per se, but I’ve heard him speak on a few podcasts and the guy clearly isn’t dumb. Like, he’s not a Joel Osteen or a Deepak Chopra or anything.
 
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I hope you’re not seriously suggesting I need to waste time listening to the ideas of every guy who comes down the pike before I reject them.

If I know I don’t like spinach, and I walk into a cafeteria and smell something spinachy, I’m not going to order a plate and take two bites of it. I’m going to order something else that I will probably like.

I don’t care if the whole rest of the world wants to waste their time on this Jordan chap and put him at the top of the NYT best seller list. I have zero use for him and his ilk. And I’m not some teenager who has to be coaxed to try new things, it’s a simple matter of Do. Not. Want. Good evening.
 
JP opened the door for me to re explore christianity and since then i have reverted back to catholisim… so JP has inspired many , im not the only one
 
Tis_Bearself said:
I hope you’re not seriously suggesting I need to waste time listening to the ideas of every guy who comes down the pike before I reject them.
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No, of course not. But I think we can fairly easily differentiate between serious people you may disagree with and “crazy person writing screeds in the National Enquirer.” The latter you can reject out of hand. The former in my opinion, deserves at least a respectful hearing. I mean, I hope you’re not suggesting that if someone isn’t a Catholic they per se have nothing to add to the public discourse.

I’m not sure why you seem to have this animosity towards Jordan Peterson particularly (“ilk?”). Like I said, it’s not like I agree with everything that comes out of the guys mouth, but he’s not a crackpot or something. He’s basically like any other public intellectual. If you’re interested, take a listen, and then separate the wheat from the chaff for yourself.
 
Sarcelle said:
He has a large following among young white men.
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With respect this statement sounds, to me, like it reveals more about the sources you trust to inform you, than about Peterson. Media sources who dislike Peterson tend to try to smear him as appealing to white males, as if his content actually has anything to do with whiteness or maleness (which it doesn’t).

Peterson is a clinical psychologist whose “following” is composed of people who are thankful to finally have a father figure willing to tell them to do basic things like (literally) clean their room. Males and females of every background attend his talks and read his book. If you actually listen to the man talk (or to people who are at his talks, talk) he openly chokes up and cries when recounting the stories of the simple and basic steps people have told him they’ve been able to take, with his help. Whether it’s substance addicts now several months clean, or estranged parents and children reconciling.

Peterson exhibited extraordinary courage and integrity under extraordinarily difficult circumstances, and by his example and work, he has concretely helped many people in concrete, real ways.

The man has my admiration and I hope his health improves, and he enjoys some measure of peace away from the spotlight.
 
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MNathaniel said:
With respect this statement sounds, to me, like it reveals more about the sources you trust to inform you, than about Peterson. Media sources who dislike Peterson tend to try to smear him as appealing to white males, as if his content actually has anything to do with whiteness or maleness (which it doesn’t).
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I do not look to media sources to tell me who follows Jordan Peterson. I look at YouTube and see that his most ardent supporters are young white males.
 
Sarcelle said:
I do not look to media sources to tell me who follows Jordan Peterson. I look at YouTube and see that his most ardent supporters are young white males.
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Could you explain to me what that means?

Like, do comments on his videos read: “Yo, I’m white and male and this is my jam!”

(PS isn’t the majority of YouTube’s audience male? I recall hearing that as a platform YouTube skews male, with the exception of certain niche channel genres like makeup tutorials. So by definition, anyone whose public presence significantly involved Youtube videos, will have an audience that skews male unless there’s something unique about their content to skew it unusually female. Skin colour, YouTube’s never asked for mine. Could you link me to where they track our skin colour and how Peterson’s audience skews more white than comparable content?)

Also, sorry to harp on it but I’m exhausted of hearing the phrase “white male” as if that group is dangerous or scary or there’s something ominous about them making up a substantial portion of someone’s audience, in countries that skew white on a platform that skews male. Even if it were true that Peterson’s audience skews disproportionately white and male – so what? What’s the significance of that observation? Should we be upset that white males are gravitating to the message that they should clean their rooms, get off drugs, reconcile with those they’ve hurt? The message isn’t targeting white males; the message is general inspirational life advice. If the audience were disproportionately Latina, would that be relevant? Latinas are certainly part of Peterson’s audience, like everyone is. They attend his live talks, like people from every demographic do. No one is excluded from the basic life advice to clean your room.

Maybe if anything, a certain generation of white males has been presumed to be ‘probably fine’, so other groups have gotten more advice and counsel as they grew up – and now it’s white males that need and are especially seeking out this basic level of help. I don’t know. All I know is that I’m glad whenever anyone who needs help, finds the help that helps them. And Peterson is a person I deeply admire, and I’m female.
 
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MNathaniel said:
Maybe if anything, a certain generation of white males has been presumed to be ‘probably fine’, so other groups have gotten more advice and counsel as they grew up – and now it’s white males that need and are especially seeking out this basic level of help. I don’t know. All I know is that I’m glad whenever anyone who needs help, finds the help that helps them. And Peterson is a person I deeply admire, and I’m female.
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I think there’s a certain kind of malaise in the culture that disproportionately affects males, and I think that’s what Peterson taps into.

I agree that pointing out that someone’s audience is predominantly a particular demographic doesn’t really tell you much.

I don’t really get the hostility to the guy. Most of what he seems to preach is pretty common sense, back-to-basics advice.
 
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