By David Futrelle
People often joke about the whole Jordan Peterson thing being a cult, but the thing is that it really is pretty damn culty. Consider, for example, this tale of one young acolyte’s meeting with the Holy Man after a recent public debate between J-Peet and top atheist skeezeball Sam Harris.
The lucky fella, calling himself mushroomyakuza, posted his story to the Jordan Peterson subreddit earlier this week. He was thrilled to meet his guru, he wrote, because “he really has had a pretty profound impact on my life. It was humbling.”
Contemplating one’s tininess in the universe is humbling. Meeting some fussbudgety Canadian professor with a popular self-help book and an oversized sense of self-importance shouldn’t be.
He was so courteous and polite to everyone he saw, including my girlfriend. Met her with a big “how are you?” and a sweet grin.
She was probably the only woman in the entire audience.
It was a surreal moment for me, having been a fan for nearly two years when the first video of him at UoT regarding gender pronouns emerged.
Transphobia, the gateway drug to Jordan Petersonism.
Then it was my turn.
We shook hands. Good firm grip.
I looked at him and said “Thank you, man.” I said “I’m sorting it all out.”
It is just me or is it getting awfully culty in here? J-Peet tells his young fans to “sort yourself out” and “clean your room” before taking on the world’s problems. So mushroomyakuza is repeating Peterson’s own catchphrase back at him. That’s a little culty, my dude. It’s also not terribly original. It’s like meeting Right Said Fred and telling them that they really are too sexy for their shirts.
Oh but it gets cultier:
Our eyes locked and we held each others gaze. He saw into my soul, basically. There was a moment of understanding that only men have when your eyes lock in a certain way (sorry girls it’s true).
Jesus Effing Christ. It was just a little eye contact! My cats “lock eyes” with me all the time and they’re not “seeing into my soul.” They just want food!
(Though admittedly when I first got my cats at the cat shelter I chose one of them because she looked me straight in the eye and there was a moment of understanding that only people and cats have when their eyes lock in a certain way (sorry dog people it’s true), and I knew I had to pick her and she and I are very happy but then again my other cat is equally great and I picked her because she was a complete goofball, and magical eye bonding had nothing to do with it. But I digress.)
He signed the book with a smile and nod. I said” Thank you” again and he said “You’re welcome. Thank you for coming.” and gave me another firm handshake with another eye lock.
WOW WHAT WISDOM. Embroider that and put it in a little frame.
I wish I’d had time to take a picture, but there was a very long line and people were being pushed along.
People say not to meet your idols, and even though this was only for roughly ten seconds, I was not disappointed.
Thank you for everything you do Dr Peterson.
My body just did a little involuntary shudder.
I mean, it’s one thing to fanboy or fangirl a bit when you meet someone you admire or idolize. But what the hell. HE SAW INTO YOUR FUCKING SOUL!?
You’re in a cult, dude. WAKE UP!
At least a couple of the Reddit comments also found this tale ridiculous. So… yay, glimmer of hope for humanity?
And yeah, I found open transphobia a really weird thing to become a fan of someone over.
Yeah, I met a role model once and she signed my book. I was happy but I didn’t think we touched souls. These people sign hundreds of books everyday, the interaction lasts seconds. This is so sad that he’s reading so much meaning into it. Jordan Peterson just wants to sell his book, (which, buy the way I work at a library and have to see that Best seller piece of crap circulate over and over) it’s really disingenuous how he pretends to care about these confused young men.
This is really crying out for the Chuck Tingle treatment.
If you’re on Reddit, take a look at some of the Fan’s other postings. He’s got an interesting set of interests.
I had a reverse ‘meet your heroes’ sort of thing once.
There’s a semi notorious political figure here called Alistair Campbell. I’d always thought he was a bit of a git.
But he did a really good thing about mental health and opened up about his own experiences as part of a campaign to de stigmatise mental health issues.
So I thought credit where credit’s due and dropped a line via his agent just to say well done.
Then I got a really nice email back and, a bit disappointingly really, he turned out to be quite sweet.
I saw Bill Clinton speak once. I was right at the front of the crowd. Even though I was always lukewarm about his politics, his charisma in person can really not be oversold. He made me love him in that moment. I’ve never experienced anything like it. Afterwards, he was shaking hands with crowd, including me and we did make eye contact for a second. It was pretty thrilling, I admit. Although I feel like a dork admitting it.
I still wouldn’t have used that much hyperbole as this dude.
Nah fam, he didn’t see in your soul, he just saw another sucker he can milk for cash.
What is with these people? They’re so desperate for anyone, ANYONE, to take responsibility for them and tell them how to live their lives.
I really ought to get into Domming full time, I could make a mint flogging Peterson fanboys and telling them to clean their room.
Speaking of Lobster Dad (thank you, ContraPoints), the always-awesome Laurie Penny has brought righteous smack-down upon him. Sample:
And speaking of ContraPoints, her latest video essay on “The West” and what a slippery concept it is will undoubtedly have the neoreactionary end of the manosphere spluttering into their cheap Scotch…
Considering that JBP, like most Cult Leaders, prey on the insecure and the troubled in their least resistant phases, this really shouldn’t surprise anyone, and that this persons insecurities made him look for someone who would shield him from the complexities of human existence that he has not been adequately prepared for, and JBP provided.
Or, that’s just, like, my opinion, man.
I know two people who’ve met Clinton and say exactly the same. One of them is the most cynical unimpressable person ever; but she came back postively swooning about him.
Wonder what it is?
The thing is you often hear people like this fanboy jokingly refer to themselves as “The Church Of St. Jordan” or whoever. Then you try to tell these people, “It’s not a joke, you’re really in a cult,” and they get mad at you.
Magical powers?
I’m only half kidding.
I was at a primary/caucus season event in Iowa. I drove down with a group of Twin Cities Howard Dean supporters. The guy from our group – a tattooed and pierced rock musician looking dude – that I was standing next to turned to me after the handshaking and said “I’m never washing my hand again.”
Seriously. Hypnotic powers.
John Kerry was a lot more likeable in person than on TV. John Edwards less likable. Howard Dean was exactly like TV except he’s very short in person, which you don’t notice so much on TV. Edwards was very stiff and came off like a wax figure. Which is odd, because before all that scandalous stuff came out about him, he was handsome and charming on TV.
Al Franken is also shorter in person than he seems on TV.
I’ve unfortunately never seen Hillary Clinton or Barrack Obama in person.
@ Cat Mara;
THIS
I met Andrew Young in ’77-ish, a talk at U of Oregon… shook his hand, though that did not change my life. His talk was definitely life-affirming, tho….
This guy needs to be introduced to Moist Von Lipwig.
An actual yakuza wouldn’t need some wimpy academic telling him how to live his life.
I actually saw a woman get off a bus yesterday carrying a copy of 12 Rules For Life. I probably should have told her to toss it into the nearest trash bin, but who knows why she was actually reading it. She may have been reading it to laugh at it, or to know her enemy.
Sooner or later Peterson will piss off some of his fanbase. It will be interesting to see how he does it.
Why is Petersons “firm handshake” important to this dude? Is it part of some weird multi point checklist when meeting your 21st Century L Ron Hubbard idol? If he meets all the criteria, Bam! He is worthy of worship, idolatry, etc?
If so, lets see…
Shook hands. Firm shake. Check.
Nice to his GF. Check.
Peered into his soul. Check.
I dont really want to get into the heads of his sycophants any further than that. Hell, I feel a thin layer of dirt on me as it is.
Peterson saw into the fanboy’s soul, then he sucked it into the lobster-y, soul-sucking black hole hidden right behind his pupils. Dunt dunt dunt.
J-Peet was polite to someone who bought one of his books. Wow.
I have issues galore with Bill Clinton but yeah, in person he’s extreeeeemly charismatic. I saw him give a speech once (from a distance). The actual content of the speech was dry as hell but everyone was watching enraptured including me.
But his charisma doesn’t cause me to forget his many huge flaws.
The most charismatic speaker I’ve ever seen in person was James Baldwin. He was old and pretty frail at that point (not to mention tiny) but, damn, such assurance and eloquence and moral power. Where Clinton is seductive, Baldwin was badass. Very intimidating.
“Our eyes locked and we held each others gaze. He saw into my soul, basically. There was a moment of understanding that only men have when your eyes lock in a certain way (sorry girls it’s true).”
When I read that, I had to check to be sure I hadn’t accidentally gone to the Tumblr where people laugh at the rabid Destiehell shippers claiming that the two characters they’re shipping are always “eye fucking.”
I won’t say homoeroticism.
I won’t say homoeroticism.
I won’t say homoeroticism.
I won’t—
OK. Homoeroticism.
David, that is amazing you get to see James Baldwin speak!
Eric Reinbold is a terrorist. But you probably won’t be hearing too much about him in the mainstream media because he’s not a Muslim terrorist.
The other thing about Eric Reinbold? He has a wife and kids, despite making most so-called “incels” look like Adonis. That’s proof positive that it’s not incels’ looks that are keeping them from finding romance. It’s their personalities, which somehow are much more awful than even the terrorist Eric Reinbold’s.