Jordan Peterson | ContraPoints

Well if you're posting about videos of Jordan Peterson I might as well post an informative, charitable, opinionated and entertaining (to me) video from Contrapoints about who he is and what he's doing. Enjoy : ▶ this video

in “Peter Pan, Existentialist Fairy Tale? (2017)” · View on HN

I honestly don't think these interviewees know what they're talking about. The most objective argument I have to support this is that they keep talking about "whites" as a race. Never "white Americans", "caucasians", "white europeans" etc etc, just "whites" or "white people". Which is hugely problematic considering the entire concept of white as a race is incredibly modern. Before the 19th century, there wasn't a concept of whiteness, you belonged to a nation rather than a race. And it kind of makes sense, since where do you even draw the line on white? Are Egyptians white (Rami Malek...)? What about much of the middle east, many Syrians could pass for either white or Arabic? Or some western Asian countries, like most of the -istans? Ultimately, the idea of a white race was created on classist principles. The Irish were accepted as whites, despite being persecuted for centuries, as they were seen as "better than black". They weren't seen as white at all since that concept had not been created until mass immigration to the US. There's a good quote on this: [1] >The Irish, arriving poor, were in direct contact and competition with the African Americans whose social class they shared. They managed to become identified as white through their complicity in the oppression of blacks. Despite, or perhaps because of, calls from Daniel O’Connell in Ireland for the Irish in America to support the abolition of slavery, the American Irish felt their tenuous position in America would be we

in “Understanding Victimhood Culture” · View on HN

> The tough part for me to communicate here is how _ironic_ your assumption here is. You are _literally_ doing what Peterson argues is the feminine and chaotic. You are playing the role of the overprotective mother. I don't know if irony is the right word for it, but I find it interesting that you've been arguing that Petersons man-order/woman-chaos is somehow not normative and negative to women, and then go and use 'feminine and chaotic' in a pretty much purely negative way. What I find more interesting is that this exemplifies what bothers me about Peterson schtick. So much of what he says isn't actually saying all that much, because it's couched in "one could argue that", "I'm just observing x", "an interesting thought" style statements, while at the same time the very choice of statements seem to imply something nonetheless. The frustrating thing is that I find much of this 'implied' message rather concerning, but it's difficult to talk about because he (and his fans) can deny all of it. Or accuse me of reading too much into his words, vilifying him, etc. I think this comment expresses my unease with Peterson quite well (the whole thread/discussion is worth reading): [link] And then there's the famouns Contrapoints video: ▶ this video To be clear, I'm not accusing you personally, of all this, just that your comment reminded me of these thoughts. Furthermore, I ultimately do not know the details of what Peterson believes (I mean, who does?), and if his book and talks help peopl

in “Ask HN: What are good resources for life advice?” · View on HN

Not specific to philosophers, but Contrapoints has a good breakdown of why the term "postmodern neo-marxists", which JBP uses a number of times throughout the book, shows a complete misunderstanding of modern philosophy. [1] Not related to 12 rules, but Cuck Philosophy goes into JBP's lectures where he references postmodernism and again appears to completely misunderstand the fundamentals. [2] [1] ▶ this video (probably NSFW) [2] [link]

in “Schools in England Introduce a New Subject: Mindfulness” · View on HN

Not everything he says is off base and he does present the basics of clinical psychology well. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is an interesting field one can gain a lot from studying. However many things he talks or just hints at can be questional and neither his expertise nor fairly presented. It helps his cause that many criticisms of him are terrible and involve many fabrications. This youtube channel contra points is a much better criticism then mine: ▶ this video

in “The money, job, marriage myth: are you happy yet?” · View on HN

Also here's a great video that might help Peterson fans understand some of the problems with his positions: ▶ this video

in “Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?” · View on HN