The return of Jordan Peterson Every teenage boy’s favourite pseudo-intellectual is back. After a mysterious hiatus, Canadian YouTube psychologist Jordan Peterson is back to write a sequel to his bestselling 12 Rules for Life, where he will dispense more folksy reactionary wisdom to hordes of adoring mouthbreathers.
And that’s exciting news for local media’s biggest Peterson fangirl, The Australian’s Caroline Overington. By our count, Overington, who once described Peterson as “easy on the eye” has published at least 15 pieces on him since 2018.
Meanwhile, the next 12 rules haven’t gone down well among the millennial staff at publisher Penguin Random House, who’ve raised concerns about Peterson’s transphobia and alt-right-adjacent politics. Then again if you had to spend the next few months of your life eyeballs-deep in Peterson’s turgid prose you’d probably have a meltdown too.
So, where has Peterson been for the past year and a half? Well, strangely enough for a self-styled self-help guru, Peterson had something of a breakdown. We know he got hooked on benzodiazepines. We know he was also on a ridiculous all-beef diet. We know he ended up in a medically induced coma in Russia, part of an experimental treatment. And we know that later, he wound up in Serbia, where he contracted COVID-19.
News Corp’s latest target If there’s anything News Corp loves more than spreading conspiracy theories about climate change and acting as a propaganda arm for the Coalition, it’s attacking young Australians of colour for the simple crime of speaking their minds.
When Yassmin Abdel-Magied questioned the sanctity of the ANZACs, the attacks from News Corp were so vicious she eventually left the country. So little surprise then that following last week’s damning Brereton report release, the dutiful scribes at Holt Street deflected their attention to an opinion piece in Meanjin written by Afghan-Australian artist Bobuq Sayed.
Sayed’s piece is scathing and controversial, pointing out that articles have been featuring defence force mental health hotlines, centring the ADF’s experience in stories about the murder of innocent Afghans. But many pieces written by white, Anglo writers have been similarly scathing and controversial, but are not deemed newsworthy by The Daily Telegraph.
For good measure, the Tele article includes a grubby little smear from the IPA’s Daniel Wild, who calls Sayed’s argument “unAustralian.”
Since then, the piece has been picked up by the Daily Mail Australia. We hope, for Sayed’s sake, that this is the end of the pile-on.
Trump goes out Oh to be a fly on the wall in the Oval Office right now. Donald Trump continues his long November meltdown, still calling the election rigged even as his Hail Mary lawsuits continue to be tossed out. But there’s still time for the lame-duck president to make a few changes on his way out the door.
For example, he’s asked the Department of Justice to look into bringing back the old firing squad. And overnight he pardoned Michael Flynn, his old national security adviser who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI over Russia things.
Flynn is just the first in a flurry of pardons which will mark Donny’s final days in the White House. After all, Trump loves to look after his inner circle, and that entourage is absolutely crawling with crooks.
Former campaign chair Paul Manafort, currently serving a seven-year sentence for obstructing justice, is on the list, as are former advisers Rick Gates and George Papadopoulos. Steve Bannon, recently charged with defrauding investors over the border wall could be in the mix. And so is Trump himself — even though legal scholars say the president probably can’t pardon himself.
Michael Flynn, his old national security advisor who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI ….says it all Jimbo
Jordan Peterson has “adoring mouth-breathers”. This got me to chuckle. I have some sympathy for Peterson, and for his audience. I describe myself as being of slight intelligence (with a Masters), army veteran and very much a left-wing voter. However, I wouldn’t describe myself as an adoring mouth-breather Kishor.
I can support your characterisation of Peterson as a fraud, but it is clear his supporters are not all idiots. His message is very seductive, indeed his reactionary theme can appeal to the highly intelligent, as there is so much nonsense out there to react to. But ultimately he treats his audience with contempt. He is spouting things in his own interest, and in the interests of those with power and authority. His solutions inevitably gravitate to the same place, mind over matter.
Peterson’s remarks possess strong Orwellian themes as to social control and control of perspectives. Take a second look as to what Peterson has written.
Please tell us Kishor in what way shape or form is Michael Flynn a crook.
Do some research.
Be a journalist.
Ummm … would it have anything to do with his confession of guilt and subsequent conviction for carrying out a crime? That sort of fits with my definition of what a ‘crook’ is. Do you have a different definition?
I am no teen fanboy of Jordan Peterson but I’m happy to confess to enjoying being intellectually engaged by his writings and watching a number of his lectures to large university classes (to, gasp! a mixed sex / multi-racial audience) online. I find nothing “pseudo-intellectual” about a practicing Psychologist who is also a tenured Professor – like him or dislike him, as the writer of the article above clearly does, I don’t believe his intellect is in question.
Characterising people, including myself, who find Peterson an interesting public figure as “adoring mouth breathers” is puerile at best – well done Kishore for demonstrating your pseudo-intellect and own biases in abundance!
Well, people like Peterson are distractions. To misquote Shakespeare, ‘but a poor player, who struts and frets his hour upon the stage, full of sound and fury, then is heard no more’.
A bit like Warhol. You need to qualify the word ‘distractions’ or you are emulating N-R.
Don’t think much of Warhol either. Distraction: controversy for it’s own sake and self-aggrandisement.
Perhaps you could provide an example of an event or circumstance that, in your opinion, (ignoring the Sun coming over the horizon each day) is not a distraction.
Scratching my balls in the morning?
For those who have to give the activity some thought.
Haha. Too true. Touché.