Counter-Currents
Physician, Heal Thyself:
The Persecution of Jordan Peterson
Mark Gullick
1,593 words
I routinely summarize what people have said to me, and ask them if I have understood properly. — Jordan Peterson, 12 Rules for Life
Don’t talk to me that way. — Patti Smith, Break It Up
Jordan Peterson is not, as we English used to say, everyone’s cup of tea. Many on the political Right don’t know what to make of him, while the Left see two things they don’t understand and therefore don’t like: intelligence and a high-profile opinion divergent from theirs. The Left, as we are all too aware, are not the sharpest chisels in the toolbox, and are frightened of anything written that is not Ibram X. Kendi, Robin de Angelo, or a woke graphic novel.
I bought Peterson’s book 12 Rules for Life after the hubbub had died down, and found it a good read without particularly changing my life (although it is aimed at readers younger than me). Peterson instructs us, for example, to clean our rooms. Sure. The rooms in which I have lived always look as though they have just been ransacked, and that is the way I like it.
But the book is not Beyond Good and Evil. It is an apparently harmless self-help book and should not have ruffled the feathers of the cultural commissars. Peterson got very big very quickly, however, and was not sticking to the approved script. Accordingly, hazard buzzers began to sound in the subterranean corridors of the Deep State. Peterson had two things the new ideological Reich cannot live with: a heretical message and the means to transmit it.
Peterson is a natural communicator and a seasoned academic lecturer. He is erudite and passionate, well-read and analytical, culturally aware, and with a healthy dissidence. My favorite moment from one of his interviews is where he praises not a classical philosopher or Russian author, but Alice Cooper’s brilliant 1975 album Welcome to my Nightmare. Peterson is also a professional clinical psychologist (they are the useful ones, unlike experimental psychologists), licensed and accomplished in his career. Or at least he is at the time of writing.
In the context of what is now regularly called “cancel culture,” Peterson has been cruising for a bruising since 2016, when he fell out with university authorities in Toronto for his perfect willingness to use students’ “preferred pronouns” (you can’t write that phrase without scare quotes, seriously) as long as it was not mandated by legislation. This is the ultimate heresy now. If the state tells you that two plus two equals five, you had better not be coming back with any of that “four” crap.
Today, Peterson’s career as a professional and practicing clinician is under threat, not least because he has fallen foul of Canadian premier and dandyish show pony, Justin Trudeau. This charlatan may or may not have weaponized Peterson’s professional body, The College of Psychologists of Ontario (CPO), in the same way he may or may not be the bastard son of either Fidel Castro or one of The Rolling Stones. Trudeau is one of the most egregious examples both of globalist placemen blowing smoke up George Soros’ backside, and also the modern voter’s stupidity. I have always rather liked the Canadians I have met, but I do puzzle at the fact that they could keep voting for this mountebank.
You can buy Mark Gullick’s Vanikin in the Underworld here.
Trudeau is one of those gentle psychopaths, all crying jags and funny socks, mincing onto the set of a TV show featuring a preening queen called Ru Paul. But psychopaths tend to hide their nature under skillfully arranged social camouflage. Trudeau showed his true nature last year when he went after not just the Canadian trucker convoy, but even the people who had donated ten bucks to their cause. He hounded Ezra Levant of Rebel News for writing the only book among a bunch of volumes of ecstatic praise to be critical of this fop. And now he is complicit in the hunt for Jordan Peterson.
The best piece I have read on the current Peterson imbroglio is here at CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is written by a man with a name sinisterly close to my own, Mark Gollom, and I had to check to ensure I wasn’t ghostwriting under a feeble alias and had forgotten. The piece gives all the necessary background and profile, although Peterson has become practically a brand name and I’m sure you know much of it. The piece is worth reading for the details, but I am more interested in what Peterson’s persecution means for those of us who don’t know the words to the new globalist international anthem and sing something else instead.
The saying “to find out who rules you, first find out who you can’t criticize” has been variously attributed — Voltaire seems to be leading the pack — but it can scarcely be denied. Anyone reading this who has ever worked for a company, and therefore dealt with management, will understand the risk in criticizing these quasi-autistic autocrats, at least if one wishes to maintain employed. Like monkeys and the Japanese, petty people in positions of power don’t like you to show your teeth in laughter. The devil cannot endure to be mocked. Nor can your line manager. But mock the devil is precisely what Peterson has done.
The tweets which have got Peterson in the soup are all in Gollom’s piece. One criticizes an Ottawa councilor for obsessing about personal pronouns, one sees the doctor “dead-naming” some transvestite, one insults a former secretary to Trudeau, and the last says that a fat woman on the cover of a swimwear magazine is “not beautiful.” The fact that the Deep State (in the outsourced form of Peterson’s professional overseer the CPO) is coming after him is absolutely in accordance with the ongoing globalist program to silence those who must be silenced. And it may be no coincidence that Canada is hosting this witch hunt.
Commonwealth countries, along with Britain’s number one major European trading ally The Netherlands (née Holland), seem to have been chosen as lead astronauts in the current accelerated push for totalitarian control over the populace. Trudeau aside, New Zealand’s equine Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern spoke publicly about the government being “the single source of truth.” I don’t, incidentally, call her “equine” because she rides horses, but because she looks like one. I am not usually in favor of ad hominem (or in this case ad feminam) insults, but sometimes you have to tell the better angels of your nature to butt out. In Australia, although new PM Albinese has yet to reveal just how much of a socialist he really is, Governor of Victoria Dan Andrews, who looks like someone’s retarded cousin, went full retard during Covid, relishing the power to lock people down.
Meanwhile, over in Europe, Dutch farmers were less than ecstatic that they had been chosen as the first victims of legislation to reduce nitrogen use in fertilizer, which is a bit like telling a car manufacturer he can’t use rubber in the tires. As protestors said, no farms, no food. Farms will have to close. But it’s okay — the Dutch government will buy them up! So that’s fine, then. Food for all! Well, dependent on your social credit score . . .
The aggregate of all this is that Team Global is testing the water, and Canada’s attempted takedown of Jordan Peterson is a training exercise for what is possible in the social sphere. There are, of course, the “uncancellables” who are already so rich and culturally established that their careers cannot be ended by malicious use of the media, social or otherwise. J. K. Rowling is the obvious example. I have never read any of the Harry Potter books because I am not 14, but it is hard not to appreciate her influence. And so when the commissars went after her, including the talentless and ungrateful little shits to whom she gifted an acting career, they could sully her reputation only so far.
Peterson is similar (but I would imagine nowhere near as imperially rich as Rowling), although the aim here is not to subject him to the scorn of the modern equivalent of the chattering classes on Twitter, but to take away his license to practice. They can’t break him financially, but they can take away his privileges, such as being able to work at a job he clearly loves and is demonstrably good at. The CPO are also demanding that Peterson attend a “media training program” to atone for his sins and teach him the correct way to express himself. You couldn’t get more Stalinist if you grew a big moustache, or more like Ho Chi Minh if you wore a cute little jacket.
I find one of the strangest aspects of this whole assassination attempt to be a disclaimer at the start of the CBC feature on Peterson’s persecution (which actually sounds like it should be a psychological condition). In bold type, Mark Gollom’s piece carried the following:
WARNING: This story contains details some readers may find distressing.
Read the piece, and if anyone is distressed, get in touch with me through the usual channels. I am sure we can find help. What I would find distressing is Peterson’s apologizing and climbing down. He has no intention of doing so, and a seemingly unstoppable force is about to clash head-on with an apparently immovable object. Which is which remains to be seen, but Jordan Peterson should be applauded for being the proverbial canary in the coalmine. The day may be approaching when many more of us are down there in the dark.
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22 comments
What evidence is there Trudeau has personally gone after Peterson ? It’s just a meme.
But an organization or alliance of actors going after someone because they said something that hurt someone’s feelings on social media is hardly new. After the meltdown that happened over POTUS on Twitter, this case seems quite trivial to me.
I think everyone sane agrees Peterson is an extremely limited hangout designed to stop people drifting further rightwards. The fact Peterson exists at all is more down to us inflicting our harder ideas onto public discourse.
Still we might choose to form a pragmatic view of this situation and say well we’ve forced the mainstream itself to shift a bit rightwards and he’s doing some good on some level. He’s quite articulate about trans issues, he even offers some criticism of woke and CRT even through a heavily individualistic, liberal democratic lens. Perhaps this is something to build on.
And I don’t like trollish conspiratards who denigrate a public figure for not talking about Jews for instance. That’s stupid and self-destructive.
But there’s a difference between not talking about Jews and publicly selling your asshole to them as Peterson has now done. It’s so conspicuous it’s utterly grotesque. But of course only ‘bad people’/extremists/nazis will notice.
Because he is intelligent, one might wonder if this is all as one sided as it appears. Knowing Jews are very powerful, perhaps Peterson sought the protection of the group that can offer him the most resilient umbrella against those who would try to hurt him. It’s possible, but it’s not really an excuse either. It’s not ok to make yourself into a puppet of Jews because you can and because it makes you more powerful.
Indeed we are constantly given the impression that Peterson’s work is ‘dangerous’, ‘rocking the boat’, ‘going against the grain’, ‘being suppressed’ , ‘under attack’ and we’re getting it again here.
The truth is Peterson is ridiculously heavily promoted by Youtube to watch, demonstrating that even if some topics he covers bristle some segments of the left – on the most sensitive issues the net weight of Peterson’s output is not actually dangerous, but rather highly supportive of whatever ideas power seeks to advance or stifle.
To be honest I don’t know how much I care about what happens to someone professionally who is trying to hide where the exit is on all this stuff. Why should I feel anything ?
If they really did strip Peterson of his license, there was a case that he might have well just told the whole truth (of which Peterson is far too intelligent not to know – yes he’s acting in bad faith on Jews and race).
This video explains how Jordan Peterson is a gatekeeper.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/Y0ojt1CPHLQs/
The saying attributed to Voltaire is actually from Kevin Alfred Strom. — See here and here.
Thank you.
Peterson did not amiably agree nor was he perfectly willing to use people’s, “preferred pronouns.” He got in deeper trouble precisely because he said he would only use someone’s PPs on a case by case basis. The reason he stated is because he would want to ascrtain the person’s motives. The subtext being, having preferred pronouns is a power game and Peterson knows it.
That is what ruffled the feathers of the compelled speech mob. He didn’t just stand up to government mandated speech, he stood up to any kind of compelled speech and stood up for his right to choose his own words and negotiate formalities in language on a person by person basis.
I agree with Vagrant Rightist’s comments about Peterson wisely staying silent vs. boot licking in a way that excludes people from deeper scrutiny and criticism. Of course, we know who pays him. Given that, VR’s theory of some random out of control gollum going after Peterson makes sense. Of course, Trudeau could be extremely petty and vindictive and have taken Peterson’s description of him as childish and foolish very personally.
Who knows. We focus on righting and steadying ourselves as our primary concern.
Peterson is the midwits idea of an intellectual.
So the author should wash his lil man and clean his room, so Peterson’s con-servative overlords can ship in some migrants to move into that sparkling clean room.
Enjoyed this, thanks. I’m mystified how there are those on the right that have a problem with this guy. A movement is built by forming allies, not a search for identical twins. Any time someone with rightist views of some sort that breaks through the media mainstream is a win, even if small. He wrote a piece about his resignation from the leftist hotbed of academia at age 59. Given that Toronto is a famously leftist city, its halls of academe must be 10 times that. I don’t know what to make of it. A nasty kiss off when he realized he was making enough dough from books and speaking engagements? Or kicked out, as forced retirement is a well known loophole to get around “tenure” (Univ of Pennsylvania is likely trying to do it to Amy Wax, who has also been vocal speaking out about DIE). Peterson ends his editorial with
“He who sows the wind will reap the whirlwind. And the wind is rising”
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/jordan-peterson-why-i-am-no-longer-a-tenured-professor-at-the-university-of-toronto
Allies not identical twins. Superb. Be careful, I might steal it…
“New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern announces resignation”
Good Riddance, hopefully Trudeau and Andrews are next on the chopping block.
One of the things that sticks out about him was his tweet about the overweight woman on the cover of “Sports Illustrated”. The powers that be were trying to convince people that this was attractive. He was right to point out that this an attempt from the top down to basically change peoples perception of beauty.
Maybe Larry the Cable Guy can be on a Sports Illustrated cover in a speedo. His fans can wail and bemoan any woman who fails to see his “beauty”. Botticelli’s Venus, Michaelangeo’s David… Their allure is just a social construct. Just as anthropologists are wringing their hands about whether they should still assign gender to the bones they excavate, has anyone bothered to ask David or Venus their preferred pronouns?
How long do i have to suffer this mediocre dweeb? There is nothing original about peterson. Hes a dorky, weak willed drug addict who was destined to be so since he was this politicized teenager declaring he won’t be happy till hes prime minister of canada, for the labour party mind you. So even his “marxists have infested academia, bucko” stick is fraudulent, if the giant Bolschevik artworks in his home weren’t clue enough.
His followers are pure cancer. Weak, nerdish, fatherless bastards just like he is that adopt him as their surrogate daddy because, rightly so, they see themselves in him, cause they are pathetic nerdish drug addicts themselves.
I don’t see what we have to gain here.
Not a fan of him, either. Still, crowder is far more insufferable. I say build the wall but on the Canadian border. These people should stay put up north and repair their own mess of a country before coming down here to start bitching about ours. gavin and seth rogen included.
Good essay, pungent and pugnacious. I don’t follow Peterson, so was unaware of his persecution. Disgraceful, I hope he toughs it out. I don’t think he’s a sellout; just someone who knows some truths and is trying to get them expressed without being cancelled.
It is easy to see what Peterson is:
I. Does he tell truth (even if limited)?
II. Does he repeat or reinforce or cover for enemy lies?
If he only did item I. then he could be an ally (albeit a wimpy and weak one).
As he also does item II. he is therefor indisputably an enemy.
Really simple guys, no mystery at all. He is enemy of the white race and a servant of the Jews.
The only question is: Knowing or not.
… He knows.
Therefore he is a fake, devious, despicable — pretending to speak a little truth as bait while knowingly enforcing the genocidal agenda and lies of the enemy.
If you think he’s okay then you need to rethink, if then you still think he’s okay then *you* are not okay.
Agree here. I was gonna write something similar. ‘Ally’ implies reciprocal attitudes between parties, or fellow travelers for part of the journey. It’s a strange ally that overtly seeks to stop you progressing.
Peterson ‘broke through’ just as we broke through in 2016. This ongoing perception of Peterson ‘breaking through’ is absolutely key to his constructed image. It earmarks him as dangerous to the general public, as the system grudgingly tolerating the absolute limits of speech.
I get the impression people who admire Peterson are on the lighter end of the rightwing spectrum.
They more want someone to articulate their frustrations about the way liberal democratic society has gone or been hijacked. They’re not looking for too much discomfort about the most taboo topics. They perceive Peterson as a victory.
But it’s not clear to me that they see, or don’t want to see, or see but ignore, that Peterson himself has been quite explicit in his condemnation of politics where white people organize for their own interests.
So they either accept Peterson’s position as valid, or they think he’s playing some of kind of game to avoid yet harsher treatment.
If that were not enough, I’m not sure how much they see Peterson has now very explicitly allied himself with neoconservative Jewish interests to the point of farce and has literally become their talking head.
Furthermore, even that woman who runs youtube has said this kind of content is promoted as it has a deradicalizing effect on people with an interest in rightwing politics. This segment starts from 1 hour in, which I thought was quite interesting:
https://rumble.com/v2619vq-bills-proliferate-to-criminalize-speech-darren-beattie-on-lex-and-brazil-fa.html
They are talking more about Lex Fridman and Shapiro I think, but when he says “this is what ends up being promoted, a sort of faux radicalism, this idea that if you listen to these people you’re getting the ‘underground’ conversation when in reality you’re being led into mainstream orthodoxy”
I think is a good description for this entire deradicalizing ecosystem youtube steers people towards, of which Peterson plays is part.
It also seems clear to me the system will tolerate, even encourage a certain amount of dissent on some issues which are more disposable to it like trannyism, climate change, covid vaccines in exchange for keeping more profound upstream issues off the table entirely.
Sure there will inevitably still be leftists who get bent out of shape by something someone like Peterson has said on Twitter, but it’s more ironic than important.
So even if this went anywhere which I doubt, Peterson is not going to be destitute. I get the impression he makes in 7-14 days between 1 and 2X what CC was seeking to raise for the year.
Yours is the 100,000th comment approved at CC.
Very cool Greg. Thanks for that! Nice to be a number. Wonder if it has some profound meaning?
Do you remember the first comment ever approved, or come to think of it the hundredth or any other landmark comment numbers ?
I remember when I posted my 5,000th comment. This is 5,366.
It seems to be an interesting story but I was unable to find the substance of it. What did the physician/psychologist do and what did the Canadian authorities do to him after doing it?
I read a lot of illuminating descriptions of the Canadian Left but was unable to discover what actually happened here.
rd
Peterson cries all the time. More than any woman I’ve ever known.
He refuses to address who’s behind all the wokeness he constantly pretends to attack.
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