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You shouldn't have to justify yourself like this, nobody said anything "dangerous" and when people say stuff like that, the only dangerous thing is taking them seriously. Jordan Petersen is not a great public intellectual in general - as someone who has given him some serious attention, in particular when he was doing his lecture series analyzing the Book of Genesis - it too much a compliment to him to even perceive him as dangerous. Was highly disappointed in that lecture series because in none of his 2 hour discourses does he *ever* *get* *to* *his* *point*. Guys like Chomsky and Foucault, who are taught and well-respected in universities, have posited much more ""dangerous"" and ""controversial"" ideas than Petersen -- but they actually made their points succinct and digestible. So even though I have found useful things in Petersen's lectures as well, one is generally better off just reading Solzhenitsyn or Vasily Grossman for themselves instead for better criticism of Stalinesque totalitarians from the perspective of people who had to live under it, and one is better off following a traditional Bible study, and read Jung, than listen to Petersen's lectures. People who make assumptions about you just for invoking his name do not merit serious attention however. They are riled up by a negative marketing/guerilla campaign from people opposed to Petersen, but by and large, their statements are pure hyperbole. Petersen is genuinely too mediocre to be dangerous or improper to mention in polite company.

Hello, SadisticSilver! If you can, I'd like to handle these conversations in personal messages just so that we won't have other patrons here in the comments arguing with each other about these things. I don't want the public thread to devolve into users fighting over politics. I'm very open to hearing perspectives on this though, and I think that will be most productive if it's done in private messages. If you have links to where JP has said the things you are claiming here, please send them to me in a PM.

Resonant Arc

Hello, everyone. Based on a couple of responses we've received in the youtube comments, I felt I'd copy/paste my response from there so that people can see it here too. If you'd like to discuss some of this further with me, feel free to reach out on a personal message here or on discord. I can see that some people might feel alarmed by the response we gave to the Jordan Peterson question, so I'd like to open a dialogue about it with those who feel concerned. I think that's important, especially for those who want to make more informed choices about who they support on patreon. In any case, here is the copy/paste: Hi there, As someone who has maybe seen two dozen-ish clips of Jordan Peterson on youtube, but never read any of his books or anything, I admit that my understanding of the body of his work is nowhere near extensive. Mostly, I've seen clips from his lectures on psychology, and as a layman lying in bed late at night watching youtube videos (and while not pursuing any serious study on what he was lecturing about), I found them mostly interesting. I've also seen a couple of his debates on religion and found most of those to be laughably incoherent, though still valuable in forming my own opinions. It's frustrating to me how he constantly dodges and avoids answering direct questions about his belief in god, for instance. All that said, I haven't really spent the time listening to or reading Peterson to have an informed opinion of the man. I suppose I should have lead with that. However, the fact that his name being brought up at all (without an immediate, scathing dismissal) amounts to being enough to change someone's opinion of me as a person is precisely the kind of thing I was referring to with the state of our public discourse. It's like any association with Peterson (even in thinking a short clip of a lecture on psychology was interesting food for thought) immediately creates assumptions about what Casen or I believe. Casen and I don't agree on many things despite how it might look in podcasts, and he isn't some hardcore right-wing guy either. I suppose I should have anticipated this, so the fault is really with me. So, since it was a clumsy attempt to be candid about something I'm not very informed about and which is high controversial, I'll open up a dialogue here to let people tell me why Peterson's views are dangerous. I know you've already listed a bunch of points, but I'd like maybe some links to watch or read so that I can be more informed on why he's a problematic person.

Resonant Arc