this post was submitted on 13 May 2024
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Socialism
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It shows a picture of him next to Karl Marx, refers to him primarily as a psychologist, and lists his claim to fame as telling people to clean their rooms. It comes out the gate trying to paint a legitimizing picture of him, then offers the kind of criticism you'd offer a legitimate academic.
Literally does not mention that he nearly lost his license to practice due to his behavior online. A search for 'trans' doesn't turn up a thing in the article written about a man who's become famous for his transphobia.
Jordan Peterson doesn't deserve to have his ideas taken seriously, to be mentioned in the same breath as Karl Marx, or to be propped up in any public space that doesn't call him out for his transphobia and inhumanity. This article does all three. Shameful.
Marx is being juxtaposed here because the article the author is addressing did that; he's not equating the two, nor is he trying to legitimize lobster man (the dude's already gotten on mainstream platforms and has a fuckton of fans---that ship has sailed). The CurrentAffairs audience is expected to already be familiar with this guy on account of the fact that it's a niche libertarian socialist magazine that writes critical pieces about him every so often. The author agrees that he's a charlatan and intellectual fraud that peddles reactionary bullshit to depressed young men.
If you want to do a deeper dive into why lobster man sucks (or share other pieces that do), then that would be a good contribution to the comments section here. Or post it to the beehive, provided that it's socialist critique. Either would be welcome.
Literally most people do not have any idea who Jordan Peterson is. Everybody on Beehaw probably does, but that doesn't help an article that's going to be introducing this guy for the first time to likely a significant number of its readers.
Queer folks and leftists tend to be aware of this guy on the one hand, and transphobes and a certain brand of conservative on the other. Other than that? It's not like he's a household name.
There's no need to treat him like he's important and fail to address why he's a problem at all.
Guess who the CurrentAffairs demographic is. :D
Literally a magazine for internet socialists, who absolutely know who this guy is, especially if they've been reading it for awhile. Your average Joe Schmoe doesn't know what CurrentAffairs magazine is. More people know who lobster man is, honestly.