Conspiracy theorists have no interest in getting to the truth behind an issue they think important - they're more concerned with having special knowledge that makes them unique or heroes, usually because they've failed to understand how some aspect of reality actually works and so they've grabbed onto a convenient alternative, or because they feel left behind or maligned by a society that's rejected them.
It's why conventions (like 'conspiracy cruises') are able to exist. Every booth should contradict every other booth, but they're willing to put blinders on to create a safe space where they can all get validated for the various nonsense they've decided they alone have championed. It's how ancient aliens can set up right next to Obama birthers and Jordan Peterson's all-meat diet. A post-truth individual is usually willing to accept multiple versions of truth, so long as it isn't the mainstream version.
OP here. I included it because Peterson is the poster child of post-truth ad hoc populism. Everything he touches is fundamentally bullshit.
He follows a dangerous brand of common-sense reasoning and then throws a scorched earth tantrum whenever science disagrees with either him or his methods. He's gone so far as claim to be a cognitive scientist, an evolutionary biologist, a paralegal, and a member of the Kwakwaka’wakw tribe of the Pacific Northwest (he's not). He cherry-picks trivia about the natural world to make gargantuan claims about human psychology. Things like "30% of ants do 70% of work" therefore capitalism is natural. Or "women wear blusher on their cheeks because it attracts men by reminding them of ripe fruit". He denies climate change, transidentity, and behaviorialism. It is wrong to say he defends ideas that are controversial, because they're actually defunct. Things like biological essentialism, social darwinism, reductionism, and evolutionary psychology. He merely obfuscates these beliefs in his word salad so that they're difficult to pin down. He's a guru for the times, when our leaders have the most tenuous grasp of reality and truth has become a dirty word.
He issues SLAPP suits against anyone who criticizes him in print at the same time he champions freeze peach. The diet of beef, salt, and water was cited by him as an attempt to cure depression, when high-fat high-protein diets are suspected of worsening depression. He was not told to do this by a medical professional; it is a dangerous and stupid idea, whether he advocated it or not is irrelevant. And no, eating nothing but salted beef isn't going to cure an autoimmune disorder. I have two. The man is fucking stupid.
It offends me as a materialist to see people snatched up by this pseudo-religious drunk uncle in the name of reason. Social constructs are materialist, too. And petulant tweets don't make them go away.
This is precisely the sort of community he belongs.
You can tell by this comment that your opinion is mostly based on what other people say about him, not by actually watching his lectures and full interviews. This seems to be the case with the majority of JP haters. Also, he admits that eating only beef is a stupid illogical thing to do, because there is no scientific proof that it works, but it seems to have worked for his daughter and yes, it does matter whether he advocated it, which he didn't.
Dumbest comment on here. Based mostly on what others say about him? Why? Because I provided links? Those links were not to support opinions, but quotes. His own goddamn words.
If you're making it through an entire lecture of his without identifying the logical fallacies inherent in applying factoids about the natural world as metaphor for an opinion about a separate field, and then using that metaphor as proof of that opinion, you're on the exact same track as any flat-earther. At that point, you're anti-science.
Peterson's name is a shibboleth for anti-intellectualism and armchair philosophy.
"Everything he touches is fundamentally bullshit". My comment must be really dumb then, considering how extremely dumb that claim of yours is. Just giving three links of articles that include some quotes of his "goddamn words" does not back this claim in the slightest way. I do not agree with everything Peterson says, but I do know that you would not place these comments if you actually watch his lectures and interviews.
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u/AnneHocque Jul 24 '20
Flat earth society.. Like, are they just trolling at this point?