For The Love Of All Things Good, Stop Listening To Jordan Peterson

Sarah Wood
5 min readApr 17, 2018

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Dr. Jordan Peterson

For many, it’s going to be difficult to admit they’ve been part of a cult. After all, when you’re in the cult you don’t realize where you are. You’ve been sucked in by a doctrine that you agree with and believe that doctrine with all it holds to be sacred and true. You also believe your leader. In the case of whatever it is that Jordan Peterson is selling (seemingly his books) he’s become a new age cult leader for those seeking to be justified in their ineptitude of anything beyond the status quo of a time gone by.

Peterson’s apparently been given the title of doctor and claims to be a clinical psychologist and professor, albeit part of being a psychologist is to do no harm, and he’s harming the hell out of society with his drivel.

Hearing Peterson’s name in passing from time to time and reading minimally about him, it wasn’t until recently that I dove in head first to the world of his form of pseudo-psychology. And once you’re in that rabbit hole, it’s pretty hard to escape because it’s like driving up on a car wreck you can’t look away from.

Undoubtedly, once Peterson’s following catch wind of this article they’ll try to diminish me and put me down much like Scientologists do when they begin to be exposed or have a member leave their “church.” That’s fine. If they feel the need to justify their ineptitude with more ineptitude and fail to provide facts and reason, more power to them. They’re clearly sad little rats lost in a sewer of their own despair, hoping the status quo mediocre white man, just like most of them, vindicates their thought process and wannabe reality. They’ve done this to countless others to silence dissent. It’s sad. But true. And makes them utterly transparent showing they can’t handle opposing viewpoints. Funny, too, from a bunch of people who think they are intellectually superior. Guess not.

If you’re just now hearing about Peterson, he’s the kind of guy at dinner parties who will “correct” you and likely offer some form of Jungian quote to validate his own opinion. Even though the developmental theories of Carl Jung aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. And Peterson, much like Jung and Freud and the whole lot, are remarkably sexist. You will hear this sexism time and time and time again in Peterson interviews, videos and writings.

For instance, Peterson once declared that in order to form respect there must be an underlying ability to fight an individual. He then says that you can’t have this with “crazy women” because you are not allowed to physically fight them. He said:

“I’m defenceless against that kind of female insanity because the techniques that I would use against a man who was employing those tactics are forbidden to me.”

So, Peterson can only solve problems with violence? Or potential violence? Seems to me he’s terrified of women who challenge him and would love to literally brutalize them but he’s held back by law. And instead of acknowledging a differing viewpoint, he immediately calls them insane, that shows the inability to cope much like that of a child told they can’t have candy for dinner. How’s that for analysis, doctor?

Some of Peterson’s biggest fans are those in the alt-right (white supremacists) and men’s rights activists. You know, for all those rights men still don’t have. And of course they love him. Why wouldn’t they? He espouses the thought process that white male privilege isn’t real. Yet he carefully disguises his belief by saying he does believe in “equality of opportunity” but also notes that this already exists. It doesn’t. You can’t pull yourself up by your bootstraps if you’ve never had access to boots in the first place. He’s adamant against ‘equity’ fearing feminists are trying to have “equality of outcome.” No, Jordan. Woman and people of color simple want equity of opportunity. We don’t want instant parity, but rather the parity of opportunity. Things that simply do not exist in modern day society. Not yet, at least.

When men, pardon me, white men, overwhelmingly have opportunities women and people of color don’t have, that’s not equality of opportunity. When women with twice as much experience and advanced degrees get overlooked for supervisory rolls or a chance to one day reach, as Peterson says, the “C-suite”, it shows that men aren’t actually the more “hyper-productive” people, but rather the ones simply promoted for the appendage between their legs and the bromance culture often espoused in many companies. So yes, the pay gap is real and will change. Don’t like that fact? Sorry if this reality check makes you uncomfortable. They sell binkies at most department stores. Maybe women aren’t the “neurotic” ones after all.

Oh, and don’t forget Peterson’s views on the LGBTQ community. His view is that traditional families are best, even though lesbian parents show zero percent abuse rates. He seems to think that kids only belong with a mommy and daddy, and their biological ones at that. So, sorry about your luck, adopted kids, maybe you would have been better off with your drug addicted parents who gave you up for adoption to live with the posh gay couple who provided a life most kids couldn’t dare to dream of. Let’s not forget Peterson also thinks gay marriage isn’t really a thing that could exist because it’s a sign of a “Marxist” state. And being Transgender also isn’t real because he believes there are only two biological genders and ignores all modern-day pyschological research adamantly discrediting him. His views are as dangerous to society as they are absolutely inaccurate.

You will notice Peterson saying “Marxist” a lot and that any signs of oppression are make-believe apparitions of the state merely put in place to control us. You’ve got to use a scary word and create a boogeyman when you don’t want to accept the reality of a situation. That reality being oppression does absolutely exist and if often exists at the hands of people who look and think exactly like Jordan Peterson.

So, for the love of all things good, stop listening to Jordan Peterson. He’s a garbage, wannabe philospher who’s ideas belong in the dustbin of history. He’s trying to sell you books and appearances, so if anything, he’s a better capitalist than he is psychologist or any form or “self-help” guru. If you have to look to a guy who makes up his own facts with opinions instead of reality, maybe the problem isn’t society.

(Image via Wikimedia Commons)

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Sarah Wood

Writer & Satirist. Creator @FreeWoodPost. Sax Player. Lover of Art. Hiker of trails. Boston fan. Host of @SWvarietyhour — Writer for hire. sarahwoodwriter.com