Sunday, August 12, 2018

Is Jordan Peterson Alt Right?

My answer on Quora.

Dr. Peterson is not alt right at all. He is a classical liberal in the true sense of the word who values open minded discussion, deep analysis, skepticism, empiricism and speaks from a rigorous academic tradition that ought to be the bedrock of western thought. Peterson sees himself as an opponent of totalitarian ideology on both the left and the right (especially compelled speech) and has continually stated that he hopes that his words will act to dissuade young people from falling into the trap of the Alt Right. In fact his criticism of the Alt Right has produced somewhat of a backlash against him by such White Nationalist personalities as Millennial Woes.
Much of the criticism against Peterson (such as what I have seen in several of the answers here) comes from a decontextualized interpretation of his words, the blatant use of strawmen and a recourse to hearsay. A great deal of this is insincere.
There is a reason for this. Peterson is taking on an entrenched power structure that has been gaining ground since the 60s and his opponents are feeling the heat. He is one of the few figures in academia today who is willing to call out the toxicity of cultural marxist and post modernist thinking that all too often dominate discourse in many social science and humanities departments today on campus.
He stands for evidence based academic work over social activism and champions equality of opportunity over outcome. In short he is a vital voice for individualism and in a world where we are increasingly being forced to view issues along collectivist identity based paradigms Peterson is a refreshing and much needed ‘antidote to this chaos’.

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