That’s quite a list of critics of the Rogan/Peterson circle jerk. All these people with relevant, advanced degrees in climatology are explaining that Peterson is childishly inaccurate and foolish, as if maybe at some point people will wake up and realize that he is a lying incompetent.
Dr Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick:
“He seems to think we model the future climate the same way we do the weather. He sounds intelligent, but he’s completely wrong.
“He has no frickin’ idea,” she said.
Dr Gavin Schmidt:
“Guys, for the love of everything holy, please, please, have somebody on who knows what the heck a climate model is!!!”
Schmidt told the Guardian he was reminded of a quote from the famous British statistician George Box.
“Peterson has managed to absorb the first part of George Box’s famous dictum that ‘all models are wrong’ but appears to have not worked out the second part ‘but some are useful’,” Schmidt said.
Prof Steve Sherwood:
Peterson was “making the ancient climate sceptic error of mixing up weather and climate”.
“Anyone who has taken an introductory course in climate or atmospheric science would spot this problem,” he said. “Errors in a weather forecast indeed accumulate such that after a couple of weeks the forecast is useless.”
But with climate, Sherwood said, the models work differently to project how the climate will respond to different factors, such as higher levels of CO2.
“[Peterson’s] argument is like saying we can’t predict whether a pot of water on a flame will boil, because we decide in advance what variables to put in our model, and can’t predict each bubble.”
Prof Christian Jakob:
Peterson’s comments were “ill-informed” and that he’d “mixed up weather prediction with climate projections.
“People are entitled to their opinions, but science and climate modelling isn’t about opinion. If you’re not well informed about how something is done then it’s not right to make comments about it on a large platform.”
Prof Michael Mann:
Peterson’s comments – and Rogan’s facilitation of them – was an “almost comedic type of nihilism” that would be funny if it wasn’t so dangerous.
Peterson’s claim that the climate was too complicated showed “a total lack of understanding of how science works” and could be used to dismiss physics, chemistry, biology, “and every other field of science where one formulates conceptual models”, according to Mann.
“Every great discovery in science – including the physics that allowed Peterson and Rogan to record and broadcast their ridiculous conversation – has arisen through that process,” he said.
Prof John Abraham:
the episode was “a word salad of nonsense spoken by people who have no sense when it comes to climate.”
“To say that climate model errors increase like compound interest is laughable. Jordan Peterson displays a near complete misunderstanding of climate change, and the tools climate scientists use to understand what is happening to our planet.
“It’s as if someone, with zero expertise and knowledge, made comments about something he knows little about.”
You know, people have been blasting this message since he first squelched his way into the public consciousness with his wrong interpretations of an anti-discrimination law, his wrong explanations of gender, his wrong ideas about evolution and neuroscience, his wrong notions of epidemiology and disease, all undergirded by his wrong opinions about religion and supernatural phenomena, and his foundation in the wrong ideas about psychology (his profession!) built on a bizarre Jungian framework. His audience doesn’t seem to care. They just seem to like that he’s blissfully confident about his wrongness, and that’s what they love about him.
Peterson’s career as a serious scholar, professor, and psychologist is long over.
His career as a conperson and professional hater on the far reaches of the lunatic fringes is doing fine though.
Peterson’s peer group is people like Rush Limpbrain, Ann Coulter, Alex Jones, Fox NoNews, OAN, Ken Ham, any fundie xian minister, and so on.
He is simply one of a large mob of right wingnuts.
With Peterson’s skill at being “blissfully confident”, he might become an inspirational preacher, like Jim Jones of The People’s Temple of Jonestown, Guyana. I myself would rather not drink the Flavour-Aid.
Don’t get me started on that blithering idiot.. I received y graduate degrees in Experimental Psychology, focusing on cognition and neuropsychology. To say that this person doesn’t know his own field is an understatement. In fact one of the places he lists as part of his post grad education isn’t even an accredited university (Grand Prairie Regional College). I like what one student said about the place.
“Majority of the profs are helpful, however there are a few that are a little "sketchy". ”
Others have said that most of the instructors are just mailing it in.
Frankly I am surprised that McGill (one of the best schools in Canada, and has a long history of being among the best for neuroscience) not only admitted him, but gave him a PhD. I’m going to have to dig up his dissertation (if he actually did one that is). Frankly McGill out to withdraw his PhD and make him do it over.
I wish Fox news would just hurry up and hire this twit! He has all the “right” qualifications needed to excel at that dump truck of a news org.
The difference between Peterson and other frauds like Andrew Fakewield (that great spoonerism) is that his brand of brand of nonsense won’t bring revocation of his “credentials”. Like Duane Gish, no amount of demonstrable error, dishonesty, ignorance or outright fraud will cost him nor lead to accountability. His only concern is having enough ignorant rubes to continue lining his pockets.
There is one silver lining: it’s unlikely he will ever be taken seriously again in genuinine academia. Leaving was a one-way trip.
He doesn’t need to be taken seriously by “genuine academia”, that’s not where his power lies. All Peterson needs are scores of spoiled-rotten middle-to-upper-class white boys whose daddies were too busy to beat them as children to fill his Patreon and buy his books. Trust me, there are millions more of that trash than professional academics.
@Akira MacKenzie 6
Corporal punishment has it’s own complications. It’s ok to be mad but excesses with physical punishment are another important issue.
I think taking health advice from his unqualified daughter is probably going to kill him. That or covid.
kinda like saying because you can’t accurately predict a coin flip, you can’t also accurately predict how many “heads” you’ll end up with after 100,000 flips.
Got in an argument with a neighbor a while back about this jackass. Called him a proto-fascist moron, and got the incredibly clever come back of “every one you don’t like/agree with is a fascist”
which isn’t completely wrong, as most of my disagreement with people is how they treat other people. I don’t see any room to “agree to disagree” or “respect their opinions” or whatever blathering nonsense when it comes to bigotry and white supremacism…
Is that jackass still on a 100% cow diet?
@4. Dago Red : I wish Faux news would go off the airwaves permanently along with all other Murdoch media. I wish there was a real penalty and not finanacial and political power reward given for spreading deliberate misinformation and inciting hatred and bigotry and brain-washing people with falsehoods and a toxic, hate-filled, rotten mentality.
I wish Jordan Peterson would go home and rethink his life – and change his bigoted, factually erroneous, opinions and worldview.
@ 2. Bruce : I think JP is already a preacher just preaching his own “conservative”, misogynist transphobic ideology and reichwing personality cult of bullying others.
@8. gijoel : I think JP’s drug addition and unbalanced diet is going to eventually kill him. Then again the same perhaps to a slightly lesser degree hasn’t killed Trumpelthinskin yet so, who knows? I had the previous false impression Petrson had already caught and recovered from covid but seems not. See FWIW :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Peterson#Health_problems
@StevoR #10 Yes he did catch COVID-19! From your link to wiki “In August 2020, his daughter announced that her father had contracted COVID-19 during his hospital stay in Serbia.” because she went clubbing during a covid spike.
#3, larrylyons:
Like this: https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/theses/7d278v86c
My daughter is sitting in remotely on the AMS conference currently going on, and given the titles of the sessions she sent me, ones that left my lay-person’s head spinning, I would say meteorologists are taking all sorts of careful details into account in their modeling.
For people who want to get some laughs to make this stupidity less unbearable, watch rm brown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F_HlLdhpvE
The chicken part really cracked me up.
Peterson has been in it for the grift for quite some time. at least the last decade, if I am not mistaken. He has thrown academic rigor, intellectual honesty and “seeking after truth” out the window, and only cares about growing his fanbase, so as to grow his income stream. He deserves to be left on the scrap-heap.