Love him or hate him, he's a force to be reckoned with in the culture today. But he is not what he is thought to be at first glance by 90% of supporters or detractors. So tread carefully and deeply, or ignore altogether.

My question too, haha

Now you got me interested, haha

@Renickulous @LucasfromGR
I’m not a psychologist of course (and he is) so I’m not pretending to diagnose him, but just to say that his apparent right-wingedness is just his emotional makeup, whereas his intellectual makeup is quite remarkably centrist, maybe more centrist than I’ve ever witnessed before.

So, emotionally, he is worried about a rise in left-wing extremism, where I am more worried about right-wing extremism. No problem, maybe we can serve as each other’s watchdog.

But intellectually, he is all about science, so much so that for for the first few weeks of my awareness of him I thought he was a leftie like me. But I finally realized he’s as paranoid about Commies as I am about Fascists, so, there; we’re human.

But most atheists dismiss him because he presents as a religious person, and they automatically think that means he believes in literal sky-daddys (which he doesn’t). He just doesn’t fit neatly into any of the molds people try to fit him into in order to dismiss him, or worship him. He’s an odd character, who gets a lot right I think, even though some pretty smelly things come out of his mouth sometimes.

@skado thanks alot!

@Renickulous

Maybe things are different in Canada - I’m sure they are to some extent, but I don’t see the imminent danger that JBP seems to see. He worries more than seems realistic over the “Marxist/Postmodernist” problem, as he calls it, and, though admittedly leftist extremism can be, and has been in the past, as deadly as right-wing extremism (extremism is extremism) I just don’t see things moving in that direction at this point in history, other than on college campuses (Peterson’s world) and maybe the popular press - but not in government where the rubber hits the road.

Peterson’s much hyped clash with Marxist philosopher, Zizek was a major fizzle, because in the end, there was just no there, there.

Meanwhile, here in the States, Chomsky sums up our real political direction in a recent interview:
“During the neoliberal period, both parties have shifted to the right. By the 1970s, the Democrats had pretty much abandoned the working class. The last gesture of support for the working class was the Humphrey-Hawkins bill in 1978, a full employment bill that former President Jimmy Carter watered down so it didn’t really mean anything. But since then, the Democrats have simply handed the working class over to their main class enemy: the Republicans. Some little changes here and there, but it’s pretty substantial. The Democrats have become what used to be called moderate Republicans.
The Republicans, meanwhile, have just gone off the edge…. They’ve just become “a radical insurgency.” “

The U.S. isn’t the world of course, but it appears to me the whole world, by and large, is going the same direction, while JBP is fretting over Marxists??

And when the Trump phenomenon is brought up to Dr. Peterson he barely manages a shrug of unconcern. So it looks like an emotional aberration on his part when it comes to politics, but then he is nothing short of brilliant in his own field of psychology, so go figger. Humans!