Jordan Peterson is so absurd. @thebadstats has posted a series of excerpts from his latest interview, each only a minute or two long, which is about the longest stretch of listening to this bozo I can take. Listen to him expound on his definition of “matter”, which is just him getting confused by homonyms, which leads to him being so moved by his own profundity that he starts crying.
1/ My favorite moments from Lex's interview with Jordan Peterson today 🙃
He has an amazing new talking point that he brings up twice – "what is matter? Matter is *what matters*" 🤯
then he starts crying pic.twitter.com/HIAnGwDPGM
— bad_stats (@thebadstats) August 20, 2022
The man is just losing it. This is what happens when you become a cult leader and begin squirreling about in your own head and believing in the deepities you pass off as wisdom.
Here’s another one where he explains that you have to believe in “ontological transcendence” in order to be a scientist.
7/ Some more incredible logic about how in order to do science you must believe in God. He makes this argument all the time – people must find it very convincing. pic.twitter.com/1TSRWfQJbM
— bad_stats (@thebadstats) August 20, 2022
I don’t think the fact that scientists don’t believe they know everything is quite the same as believing in whatever weird god occupies Peterson’s thinking.
At least he has no, or very, little actual influence. Imagine if the leaders of, say, a political party went off the deep end, engaged in cultish behaviour, living in their own heads, and passing it off as wisdom. That would be horrible.
I’m sure all those “good, matter-fearing materialists” out there will suitably punish this JBP sacrilege.
This is what happens when you become a cult leader and begin squirreling about in your own head and believing in the deepities you pass off as wisdom.
It’s also what you sound like when you start mistaking your tripthink for reality. He sounds like he’s switched to meth.
I dunno. What is matter with you?
(sorry. watching the twins right now. one keeps coming up to me with one Duplo block (a large lego) and asking, “Help, Bunky, help.” not sure how I can help with one building block. the other is ‘reading’ Dr.. Suess’ ABC book. upside down. hectic? i’ll let you guess.)
He has lost his mind.
That is part of it.
There seems to be more to his trip off the deep end of sanity.
.1. There probably wasn’t much there to begin with.
What has Peterson ever done or contributed in his field of psychology**?
He is a Jungian and some claim that is more pseudoscience than science.
AFAICT, he just fooled a bunch of ranking academics for a while until he couldn’t do it any more. He was pushed out of U. of Toronto and they were glad to see him gone.
.2. He has been very sick recently, much of it self induced.
The addiction to benzodiazapines that he couldn’t get rid of, off to Russia, on a vent with pneumonia, then off to Serbia where he caught the Covid-19 virus.
Then there is the all meat diet, lacking in a lot of nutrients to cure…something or other, who knows?
.3. No one intelligent and educated cares about Jordan Peterson any more.
He has destroyed his credibility and is now competing with Tucker Carlson and Ann Coulter for right wingnut money.
**PS Peterson got famous for saying over and over that, “Girls are icky”. He is a flat out misogynist.
How smart do you have to be to come up with that?
This is something occasionally said by five year old boys.
@3 He ran out of material and is desperately trying to keep the magic going.
Okay, Transphobia includes homophobia (in terms of both masculine stereotypes and playing on the fear that gay men – as they reckon – are secretly trying to seduce and trick “real men”), sexism, male insecurity, paranoia (you never know where THEY may be, after all), undercutting both the RadLeft “Us vs. Them” gender dialectic dynamic along with conservative views on arbitrary and unchangeable gender roles and much more. But there are so many transphobes already out there that JP’s one claim to fame really doesn’t make him stand out anymore.
Thus, he has to join the Cray Cray Cray to keep up. And, maybe he is starting to actually believe it.
As PZ notes, this is a deepity.
It sounds plausible until you look at it twice.
AFAICT, “ontological transcendence” doesn’t even exist.
The vast majority of scientists have never heard of it and wouldn’t believe it if they did.
It is an assertion without proof or data and may be dismissed without proof or data. No we don’t need “ontological trancendence”.
@5 re #3 – “intelligent and educated people”. There are many more stupid and ignorant people out there. Really, since when was this all ever about persuasion?
@6: LUL
He ran out of matter-ial.
His thought processes reminds me of mine in 1st year university. Reality man! Fortunately I grew out of it as I matured.
The lobster clearly has some engrams to deal with to get clear.
Masturbating is a lot more fun than bad philosophy.
… his definition of “matter”, which is just him getting confused by homonyms…
As compounded by traces of philology. As a former academic, poor Peterson surely heard repeated allusions to colleagues’ “alma mater” (literally “dear mother”), and in his deterioration now cries out for help from same. For a Jungian, this must feel particularly shameful, but he clearly needs immediate Freudian counseling (if any such still persists). Meanwhile, I would suggest a very large stuffed toy – with boobs.
Fergi @ 10
I don’t know you but I think you were probably more gronded than mr P. is today.
he just sounds like your average middle class stoner who has been getting high since he was 12 and ain’t very good (successful) at chasing skirts. a dime a dozen down on the corner in a cardboard box.
Someone has been splicing Jordan into old Command and Conquer scenes and it really looks like he’s the villain in the games.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=command+and+conquer+jordan+peterson
He sure does love the sound of his own voice, doesn’t he. Really, watching him talk is kind of fascinating because he wears his emotions on his sleeve. You can practically see the gold star light up over his head (as his eyes watch for that moment) when he thinks he’s come upon some profound bit of wisdom and waits for the applause or a pat on the head. The deadpan non-reaction of his interviewer (was it an interview, or was that guy just the brick wall for JP to bounce his pearls of enlightenment off of?) is the icing on the cake.
gijoel @16, heh. Good one, there.
Long-time reader (2006-ish). 52 year-old HS Biology teacher. Atheist. Progressive political views. I may be dying from heart failure. I may not be. Either way, I’ve been experiencing post-Covid symptoms for 8 months that can best be summarized as this: I have a limited gas-tank of energy each day, I am depressed, and I can no longer function at the levels I’ve been accustomed to. I must nap 3x/day. Neuro and Cardio docs are on the case. I trust in their practice of the science. It may not be enough.
Simply put, Peterson is a self-absorbed buffoon who provides no serious contribution science – the process of “knowing.”
I took some lorazepam for a PET scan this morning. Afterwards, I cried. I felt one with the nurses, the universe, and every other creature I came into contact with. I am not normally that gregarious and connected to other living things. Drugs are like some mental disorders (i.e., epilepsy) – we think them divine.
Peterson may have a mental disorder, he may be on drugs. Either way, he is a buffoon and I am exhausted and tired of listening to him. Delete.
@19- kit kat
I feel for you and hope you get better. Fuck Peterson. I can’t even justify hatewatching him anymore.
Some people like to trip out on wild hallucinogens. Most I assume are not anything like JP, Rogan, Aaron Rodgers or any of those other self-absorbed assholes. Not my cup of tea but I’m not trip shaming. I like beer. A little drunk now.
I can’t even imagine post-COVID except it being much worse than that week after a bad cold, flu, or allergy I’ve experienced. Being foggy headed and out of breath sucks.
That so much time is devoted to mocking a jackass like Peterson detracts from far more important issues. I hope you get better.
Heh, it does say a lot that even experiencing oceanic boundlessness* still isn’t enough to connect you with that revolting asshat. Apparently, the exact opposite of empathy is what you need for that.
Hope you get the help you need with your health problems.
*Or whatever you call it … ego dissolution, henosis, nirvana?
Next up: Cheech and Chong reunite, turn down request by Peterson to join their act.
If Peterson has any friends left, they need to stage an intervention. Or maybe stuff him in a hospital for evaluation.
Mmm, I work with scientists the whole day, and never have I heard one of them mention that ontological thingamagummy.
Normally it’s stuff like “we need that valve working”, “laser’s on the blink again” or “how’s the waste situation?”. Much less exciting, I know.
For the rest, I agree with the commenters here: for commercial reasons, he needs to ramp his shtick up, thus landing squarely in Crazy Town. What I don’t get is the attention he garners from the media, maybe it’s because incoherence sells really well these days?
@23 Obviously, you’ve never seen “Being There” starring Peter Sellers.
I can’t see why so many people are overlooking another obvious point from this:
Lex Fridman is also a huge charlatan.
spinynorman8, #25
I’ve never encountered this one before. I suppose I could google him, but in the interests of not messing up my recommendations, who exactly is he?
cartomancer:
Credulous techbro bootlicker with a podcast, apparently one of the more popular “tech” podcasts. (wiki page here)
This admittedly isn’t based on much, but I guess he may have a slight edge on, say, Sam Harris in terms of how quickly the podcast might put you to sleep. But of course that’s some pretty fierce competition. Hard to say which one would bore you faster than it would annoy you.
#26 cartomancer
Follow his twitter feed for a while and you’ll see. It’s full of meaningless pablum masquerading as wisdom.
He plays up his association with MIT (he must be a genius!!) to promote AI like Musk promotes…well, everything.
On background, you can also read up on how the term “AI” is very misleading as it is not “intelligence” in the biological sense, by any stretch, yet people like Fridman cash in on obfuscating this little detail.
Not to say that there isn’t a lot of important work going on in that field, but it ain’t gonna produce “sentient robots” like Fridman and others are fond of claiming. He’s an engineer at best who knows nothing about the topic of consciousness or neuroscience in general.
Think Aubrey de Gray in a different field with a more limited vocabulary.
listening to him give lectures is so mind-numbing. he’s a blathering gobshite. i’m shocked that anybody takes him seriously. perhaps i shouldn’t be.