Some earlier JBP book club posts:
Anecdotally, I find that there is an inverse relationship between how establishment intellectual you are (media, journalism, high academia) and how much you like Jordan Peterson. He speaks to the plebs, as much as the “bro” influencers, even though the subject matter seems like perfectly reasonable ivory tower material.
...and yet he seems appalling to the high priests of academia and the woke-lefty-political industrial complex.
I’m reading this The Economist review of We Who Wrestle With God from November this year and it’s oddly aggressive. The Economist, a magazine who otherwise take pretty balanced views and go out of their ways to portray things accurately, trash the book and JBP’s celebrity altogether. Mocking it, really.
Their reviewer is not impressed: The book reads “as if a Victorian vicar had been given a streaming subscription to Disney+ (and possibly some opium), then sat down to write his sermon.”
While they think the book isn't so much about God but JBP rambling about the divine, his other works -- Peterson Academy -- are ridiculed: “$500 a year gets you lectures by people with beards.”
Bro-followers are bad, Trump guilt-by-association:
Like Donald Trump and Joe Rogan, an American podcaster, he is one of a group of men who despite—or perhaps because of—being disdained by intellectual sorts are beloved by their “bro” followers.
I’ve found this tendency to absolutely trash JBP in many places of my life: highly educated woke women; highly educated conservative women; woke working-class men; establishment journalists; low-level and high-level male academics; close friends, both men and women, with degrees in law and other non-worthless degrees from top unis.
This is the portion of the attack I have never grasped:
I’m sorry, he got the losers of society, the outcasts, and the disillusioned men reading the Bible, Nietzsche, and existential philosophy… people who definitely didn’t have their shit together, to get their shit together, and that’s supposed to be a bad thing??
While I'm not exactly outcast (though definitely disillusioned), I have gained a lot from his work (podcast, books, lectures), and I find them revealing for life, personal development, and morality at large.
Clearly, I’m at odds with much people whose anger and indignation at this well-dressed and well-spoken Canadian is off the charts.
What am I missing?
non-paywalled here: https://archive.md/unqpG