The Cluelessness of Jordan Peterson’s “Conservative Manifesto”
And where his “conservativism” lands in the struggle between humanism and barbarism
Western conservative virtues have been the subject of corrosion, degradation and, in some cases, total reversal of understanding. As the culture war rages, Dr Jordan B Peterson has taken it upon himself to break down these virtues. He explores their meaning and importance in the modern world, allowing for a hopeful look to the future should more of us try to learn from and follow a Conservative Manifesto.
So reads the official description of Jordan Peterson’s “vision for conservatives,” an article he says he wrote over four months and which he read for his viewers in a YouTube video. Alas, the manifesto’s content is as muddled as his other lectures and rants, and it’s written in pure bombastic Academese, so you’d need the patience of a saint to take this “manifesto” seriously.
(Tellingly, as we’ll see, that video description has since been replaced with this more centrist one, with my added emphasis: “A Conservative Manifesto is Dr. Peterson’s attempt to formulate and communicate a positive vision for centrists of the right and the left in the midst of the raging culture war.”)
