Bill Maher Is A Fanboy Of University Of Toronto Professor, Jordan Peterson, A Man Whose Views Go Straight To The Heart Of Neo-Fascists And White Supremacists

 

Professor Jordan Peterson's "10 Rules" (now expanded to 12...) are simple and straightforward.

Peterson's revised "12 Rules" impress me as inferior, a number of them tinged with egocentricity and self-preening pride. 

https://i.etsystatic.com/25898763/r/il/91a92e/2680098731/il_1140xN.2680098731_51ak.jpg

Peterson can also be a complete asshole - as can I:

Like Bill Clinton, we can always argue that "it depends on what the meaning of IS, is."

But if the meaning of "oppressed" is anything like the encompassing set of behaviors that kept women "second class citizens" throughout recorded history, then Peterson is appallingly wrong.

It boggles the mind to think Peterson can be serious.

Consider...

As long as my Mom lived in her parents' home, my maternal grandfather stood at the front door of 18 Ranier Street every Friday afternoon - his hand extended - so my mother could hand over her Kodak paycheck. 

Memory is way shorter than millennia of oppression.

For American right-wingers, memory is often shorter than the time lapse between The Holocaust and now.

*****

Alan: I must preface this email with two links supplied by my daughter, and a third link from a blog published under auspices of "The Times of Israel."

"Jordan Petersson's shocking remarks remind us how Nazi apologism has crept back into our political debate": https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/jordan-peterson-nazi-apologism-lindsey-graham-holocaust-migrant-caravan-mexican-border-tear-gas-a8659001.html

"How dangerous is Jordan B Peterson, the rightwing professor who ‘hit a hornets’ nest’? Since his confrontation with Cathy Newman, the Canadian academic’s book has become a bestseller. But his arguments are riddled with ‘pseudo-facts’ and conspiracy theories" https://amp.theguardian.com/science/2018/feb/07/how-dangerous-is-jordan-b-peterson-the-rightwing-professor-who-hit-a-hornets-nest

What Dr. Jordan Peterson Taught Us About The Holocaust: https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/what-dr-jordan-peterson-taught-us-about-the-holocaust/

Peterson is a skilled debater, and far too quick to represent himself as "the wise voice of reason." Simultaneously, he represents "cultural Marxism" -- especially as filtered through modern academic orthodoxy -- as a kind of secular devil more frightening, dangerous and impressive than Christianity's traditional devil.

Ultimately, I distrust Peterson's conservative worldview, if only because it is so appealing to so many cruel (and frequently aggressively benighted) right-wingers who are proud of their ignorance; indeed, who boast of it.

Compendium Of Trump Videos That Reveal His Arrogance, Inhumanity, Stupidity And Cruelty

https://newsfrombarbaria.blogspot.com/2020/07/compendium-of-trump-videos-that-reveal.html

"Cruelty Is The Point": An Update On Donald Trump And His White "Christian" Base
https://newsfrombarbaria.blogspot.com/2021/01/cruelty-is-point-update-on-donald-trump.html

Cruelty And Retaliation: Who Comes To Mind?
https://newsfrombarbaria.blogspot.com/2020/09/who-comes-to-mind.html

Compendium Of Best "Pax-Barbaria" Posts About Trump-Cult Cruelty
https://newsfrombarbaria.blogspot.com/2020/12/compendium-of-pax-barbaria-posts-about.html

"The Cruelty Was The Point: The Trump Administration's Cruel Treatment Of Migrant Families Was Intentional And Calculated," Washington Post
https://newsfrombarbaria.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-cruelty-was-point-trump.html

"Compendium Of Best Pax Posts On Trump, Toxic Christianity And Cruelty As A Moral Obligation"
Lies As The Newly-Fabricated Gold Standard For "Truth"
https://newsfrombarbaria.blogspot.com/2021/07/compendium-of-best-pax-posts-on-trump.html

It is a simple fact - "plain as potatoes" as Chesterton would say - that Peterson's work "contributes to the radicalization of cruel, violent white supremacists" whose heart's desire aligns with theocracy far more than democracy which - whether they know it or not - they strive to terminate.  

Petereson himself may not intend this, but at bedrock it is inevitable that "birds of a feather flock together."

The fact that so many vengeful, mean-spirited, violent "Peterson brown shirts" are drawn into his orbit is proof positive that "something is rotten in Denmark," or perhaps I should say, "something is rotten at the University of Toronto" - my alma mater during Marshall McLuhan's heyday. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan

In any event, Peterson is a force to be reckoned with, and the New Left's tendency to "shout down" its opposition is not only ill-advised, but lends credibility to someone who has mastered "keeping his cool" even while being shouted down.

Never underestimate the power of paradoxical effects.

Thank you, Maria, for pointing out Peterson's dangerous shadow side!

*****

Hola!

As promised, I'm back!

In the YouTube video below, Bill Maher interviews University of Toronto professor Jordan Peterson, a viral sensation among conservatives.

Professor Peterson is a clinical psychologist and philosopher.

Maher is emphatic how much their core philosophies coincide.

If I "read" Maher correctly, Peterson is his favorite living thinker.

(It must also be said that Maher, an often brilliant analyst of American politics, can also be a flaming asshole, and that his views of Islam are fundamentally counterproductive, if not worse. Fingerwagging is rarely, if ever, the way forward.)

See "Bill Maher's Dangerous Critique Of Islam": https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/10/bill-maher-dangerous-critique-of-islam-ben-affleck/381266/

And, "Bill Maher's outrageous statements about Islam and Muslims are beyond the pale": https://www.salon.com/2017/02/23/bill-maher-bigtime-bigot-his-outrageous-statements-about-islam-and-muslims-are-beyond-the-pale_partner/

Jordan B. Peterson | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO): 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wLCmDtCDAM

Jordan Peterson's Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Peterson
Bill Maher's Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Maher
*****

And now!

The Bonus Round!

Bill Maher On American "Scorn

: 

You Don't Really Love America If You Hate Half The People In It

"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNTBoY99c24

*****
If you would like to refresh your memory, here is a copy of the email I sent earlier today:

Circumstantial evidence that the Covid virus 

may have been designed to attack 

humans at China’s Wuhan lab, and that the United States government may have 

participated in a cover-up

Alan Archibald <alanarchibaldo@gmail.com>  to undisclosed

Dear F and Jimbo

At the end of the day, there is no proof that would hold up in a criminal court of law.

Barring some confession by Chinese authorities, there may never be definitive proof that Covid was designed for biological warfare, or some other unknown end.

I forget which left-wing luminary pointed out the axiomatic truth that “Governments lie.”

And so, even if it is true that the Chinese government designed Covid for nefarious purposes, there is precious little - if any -  reason to believe that Covid is not a deadly and damaging disease, although, interestingly, recent statistics show that twice-vaccinated (but unboosted) people are dying from the disease in the greatest numbers.

This morning, I spent 90 minutes (as I sometimes do) catching up on videos of late-night comedians, including Bill Maher, who heartily approves the work of conservative psychologist-philosopher, Jordan Peterson, a lionized professor from the University of Toronto.

For some years now, I have paid attention to Peterson, and must say that I often find his arguments cogent, although it is also true (as he himself will admit), we are all subject to our blind spots.

It is this matter of blind spots —  and their impact on our sense of proportion and perspective — that perhaps accounts for my fundamental misgiving about contemporary “conservatives”: to wit, which their passionate refusal to see issues (and indeed the whole world) through lenses that accommodate perspective and proportion.

I will look up an old blog post titled something like, “Why Christian ‘conservatives’ never stop sinning.“

That post is based on Thomas Aquinas’ observation that sin is always accompanied by three characteristics, one of which is “loss of proportion and perspective.”

In brief, contemporary conservatives are so determined to live solely by their self-proclaimed, absolutely inviolable faith, that they refuse to admit any contradictory evidence.

Indeed, sometimes they refuse to admit any evidence at all, instead choosing to make their personal creed “the starting point and ending point” of their entire lives.

“God said it. I believe it. That settles it.”

Well, isn’t that convenient?

And so, not only do we witness the unabashed elevation of conservative Christians‘ opinions over facts, we also see the correlated elimination of perspective and proportion, which is to say that so-called “conservative” “Christians” refuse to admit any epistemological context, except the narrow (and narrowing) context provided by their personal interpretation of what they claim to be “biblical inerrancy.”

Well, isn’t that convenient?

The scenario outlined above may sound complicated, but it really isn’t.

These self-blinkered “conservatives”choose to live in a “confirmation bubble,“ and acknowledge absolutely no contrary evidence, no matter how ironclad that evidence may be.

At any-and-all cost, “Christian” conservatives’ particular kind of faith requires them to keep their belief system alive, even at the expense of affiliating themselves with The Big Lie (not to mention all the little lies) whose origin is Donald Trump and his QAnon “scripture wing.”

In effect, whenever it is necessary (or desirable), conservative Christians are prepared to suck sludge and gargle pus.

Gurgle, gurgle.

Gurgle, gurgle.

These “conservative” “Christians” (who are neither) are terrified of ending up in hell, and therefore, to feel certain of their personal salvation (which I consider a fundamentally selfish pursuit… What if “salvation” actually requires us to “love our enemies” to wish hell upon no one, and to make no judgment on the worthiness of others?) they will sacrifice any-and-all truth on the altar of their own radical self-interest in order to keep their psychological “banshees” from screaming that they (and their loved ones) will be thrown into The Lake Of Unquenchable Fire —- forever and ever, in saecula saeculorum.

I will follow up on this message with a link to Bill Maher’s recent Real Time interview with University of Toronto professor Jordan Peterson.

I will also send that follow-up link to my Christian conservative Trumpista friend Karen Kolbinsky, who, when she recently discovered Peterson, expressed admiration for his conservative views.

But I can tell you this with the certainty of night following day.

When Karen watches Peterson’s interview with Bill Maher, she will put zero value on the fact that politically-progressive Maher admires Peterson more than any other living thinker.

Origin of the COVID virus: https://youtu.be/aOR87iQoSYA

Hasta pronto.

Love,

A(‘bald) 

And now!!!
The Bonus Round