Sep 5, 2023·edited Sep 5, 2023Liked by radicaledward
The word that comes to mind is fundamentalism. There are plenty who treat their politics like religion - wanting to control others and insisting that people share homogenous beliefs lest they be ostracized.
Funny, I was just talking about this exact idea with some of my friends the other day, complete with the theoretical Dragon Quest comparison and everything. As another who's firmly planted on the left, it really is bizarre to see the misuse of progressive vocabulary to shift the culture so puritanical. Engaging with something is not an endorsement of all the personal lives of those associated with it! Great article as always.
Sep 5, 2023·edited Sep 5, 2023Liked by radicaledward
I have met a fair number of men--often working in the trades in their 30s-- who when they learn I am a reader ask me if I've read JP. His are often one of the few books they have read. I think he has had a positive influence. He is certainly belittled by "smart" people, but on the ground when you talk to people it makes no sense to say. But wait...and try to explain that he won't use pronouns so he can't be liked.
I think the truth is that most people probably don't know who Jordan Peterson is outside of being a self-help author. Certainly a lot of people are very into his cultural commentary and so on, but most people don't pay attention to any authors, even ones we think of as being famous.
I've never read a self-help book but I also couldn't tell you the name of a single self-help writer outside of Tony Robbinson.
This is fantastic, Ed, especially your point that all we on the Left has is people, so why would we want to kick people out of the tent?
I think that the guilt-by-association trend is even more archaic and primal than Christianty. After all, Jesus said, when telling his followers that they didn’t need to keep kosher, that it isn’t the things that go into our mouths that befoul us; it’s what comes out of our mouths.
He’s talking about the transition from shame culture--in which people are rendered impure by contact with substances and people that are taboo--to guilt culture--in which people are judged by their own actions. People who violate the rules in guilt culture can apologize and make amends, but people who are rendered impure in shame culture must be cast out, lest they themselves taint other members of the group.
When the social-justice Left cancels people because they like works by artists who are anathema, they are acting like adherents of religions that shun people because they have touched a corpse, or a menstruating woman, or have rendered themselves impure in some other way. It’s like cooties, and most of us outgrew that impulse by fifth grade. Thank you for speaking out against it.
Wow you have alot to say,most I don't agree with and that is okay. I want to hear different perspectives. There is no right or wrong regarding perspective. Some absolute truths but many different perspectives. I do agree with your view that young men are lost in the world . This didn't happen naturally but by design so I suspect my solutions would be different than yours but okay. Lets sit down and hash it out, different and all perspectives to reach a solution or at least starting point.
The word that comes to mind is fundamentalism. There are plenty who treat their politics like religion - wanting to control others and insisting that people share homogenous beliefs lest they be ostracized.
Funny, I was just talking about this exact idea with some of my friends the other day, complete with the theoretical Dragon Quest comparison and everything. As another who's firmly planted on the left, it really is bizarre to see the misuse of progressive vocabulary to shift the culture so puritanical. Engaging with something is not an endorsement of all the personal lives of those associated with it! Great article as always.
Thanks!
Yeah, I find it all so odd and depressing
I have met a fair number of men--often working in the trades in their 30s-- who when they learn I am a reader ask me if I've read JP. His are often one of the few books they have read. I think he has had a positive influence. He is certainly belittled by "smart" people, but on the ground when you talk to people it makes no sense to say. But wait...and try to explain that he won't use pronouns so he can't be liked.
I think the truth is that most people probably don't know who Jordan Peterson is outside of being a self-help author. Certainly a lot of people are very into his cultural commentary and so on, but most people don't pay attention to any authors, even ones we think of as being famous.
I've never read a self-help book but I also couldn't tell you the name of a single self-help writer outside of Tony Robbinson.
Well said, bravo.
This is really well articulated, and I agree. It’s one the most frustrating things about the left today.
This is fantastic, Ed, especially your point that all we on the Left has is people, so why would we want to kick people out of the tent?
I think that the guilt-by-association trend is even more archaic and primal than Christianty. After all, Jesus said, when telling his followers that they didn’t need to keep kosher, that it isn’t the things that go into our mouths that befoul us; it’s what comes out of our mouths.
He’s talking about the transition from shame culture--in which people are rendered impure by contact with substances and people that are taboo--to guilt culture--in which people are judged by their own actions. People who violate the rules in guilt culture can apologize and make amends, but people who are rendered impure in shame culture must be cast out, lest they themselves taint other members of the group.
When the social-justice Left cancels people because they like works by artists who are anathema, they are acting like adherents of religions that shun people because they have touched a corpse, or a menstruating woman, or have rendered themselves impure in some other way. It’s like cooties, and most of us outgrew that impulse by fifth grade. Thank you for speaking out against it.
Wow you have alot to say,most I don't agree with and that is okay. I want to hear different perspectives. There is no right or wrong regarding perspective. Some absolute truths but many different perspectives. I do agree with your view that young men are lost in the world . This didn't happen naturally but by design so I suspect my solutions would be different than yours but okay. Lets sit down and hash it out, different and all perspectives to reach a solution or at least starting point.