By David Futrelle
You have to give Jordan Peterson fans credit for at least one thing: they are unafraid to confront the most challenging questions of our postmodern age. Like, for example: is the slightly unflattering photo of Jordan Peterson that tops the potted biography Google gives you when you search his name evidence of a devious conspiracy by leftist Google goons desperate to make this very serious thinker look a little bit silly?
I mean, take a look at the PROOF of this dastardly hate crime against this HERO:
You’ll be pleased to know that the good people (but mostly dudes) of the Jordan Peterson subreddit have taken up this important issue in not one, not two, but three separate threads, the biggest of which garnered some 425 upvotes from 425 true patriot lovers. One of the OPs laid out his concerns:
Other Lobstery Bois came to similar conclusions:
![MacVogt[S] 15 points 3 days ago Seems the idea is to make him look like a clown. I wonder what kind of calculus goes into that, if they ask ah, are we powerful enough to set this narrative or will people see us as deliberately shaping the conversation, eroding trust? Or perhaps, liberals will be further binded to us if they see it, the right already hate us! Or is it some lone employee who did it on the sly?](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/gv8y0u9.png?resize=480%2C537&ssl=1)
In another comment, MacVogt expanded on his conspiracy theory:
![]MacVogt[S] 1 point 3 days ago I think Google is protecting its own ideological echochamber as represented in the broader culture. I'm not upset for Jordan Peterson's sake, but that these kinds of insulation tactics is exactly what has made the collapse of the left so agonizingly slow, hindering their ability to pivot, rethink and reformulate its core beliefs, innovate and find their footing again.](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/cf7rt8gy9708.png?resize=473%2C550&ssl=1)
Someone called ChadRedPill thought this was Google’s way of striking back against a critic of the company’s firing of anti-diversity-maniifesto-manifester James Damore:
Or perhaps this was the doing of some sinister Google artificial intelligence?
Er, what?
Did … did a bot write that?
Bots charging bots with conspiratorial comment writing in bot-written comments?
I dunno. All I know is that Jordan Peterson is VERY SERIOUS so clearly if I’m seeing a picture of him smiling it must be the result of SOME sort of conspiracy. Damn you, Google leftists, with your SMILE AGENDA!
In case you want to see the sort of pictures that Jordan Peterson Redditors consider flattering, here’s a carefully drawn set of portraits with his head swollen up like a balloon. I bet these will never make it to the top of the Google results! Must be a conspiracy.
He actually looks better to me in that photo than he usually does. The sober-faced look-at-me-I’m-such-an-intellectual thing makes him look dull and pretentious. The animated smile is more flattering.
Peterson has always been a clown.
Oh, FFS.
This is what he looks like when he smiles.
So fucking what?
Did these assholes think he never smiled?
JFC, everything has to be drama to them.
To me, that grin looks more like when non-human animals bare their teeth.
You know what I find weird? That the lobster people haven’t yet made their way here, en masse. Breathe a critical word about Daddy on Twitter, for example, and you’ll be inundated with furious responses for the rest of the day. It’s on par with criticising Lauren Southern, or (at the other end of the spectrum), tankies.
Are new commenters being moderated more? I’m not necessarily complaining, by the way – just curious.
Gotta hand it to white righties… they’re part of a majority group that literally controls 95% of everything, yet they unironically paint themselves as an abused and oppressed minority….
Righty Whiteys!!!
@Mish of the Catlady Ascendancy
Same, it’s just weird that in the trickle of trolls we got recently none seem to be hardcore Jordan Peterson fans.
Jordan Peterson is so powerful that his own smile induces gloom and despair in his followers. Truly an intellectual.
I think that’s quite a nice photograph.
I wonder though, as Peterson fans seem to be into all that evo-psych stuff, and tend to have ‘traditional’ views on gender, whether they’re applying that idea that women look more attractive when they smile and men look more attractive when they look prideful?
So they object to their hero being portrayed in a female way?
He looks like he’s about to be beaten up by Batman. Which makes sense when I think about it.
Is Jordan Peterson smiling the new Illuminati triangle now?
@Ooglyboggles: I wish he’d induce enough gloom to make them back away from the alt-right.
I think he looks better with a smile. To me, he looks sort of like he’s suffering from constipation in his “serious” poses.
There are also silly pictures of lobsters. Lobsters and humans both have melatonin. Therefore, silly pictures of Jordan Peterson are completely natural. You can’t just ignore powerful natural forces like that. His fans can complain about the pictures, but only by rejecting solid science.
Google is “radical left”? When did THAT happen???
Also: BERNT? His middle name is BERNT? That’s almost as funny as that horsey grin.
And yes, I do think it’s worth laughing at. Apparently, so do lots and lots of googlers. That’s all that’s pushed this “unhinged” picture to the front of the image search.
And if they think his “serious” pictures are better, they should see how silly he looks in a gangster suit and fedora. (Google that.)
Well I hate to say it but since I have never heard of Jordan who cares what he looks like. What is his claim to fame ?
Jordan Peterson is a professional smarmy twerp. That photo is completely accurate. Truly epic levels of smarm.
If anyone is curious about his book, but thinks reading it would be about as fun as an acid bath, there’s a Youtube channel doing a critical chapter-by-chapter deep dive. Hugo and Jake, the dudes doing the review, are neckbeard white dudes that are actually pretty dang woke (if crude and raunchy)–for neckbeard white dudes. They loathe Peterson and skewer his ‘self-help’ book through a progressive atheist perspective.
You don’t need sinister far-left Google AIs to make Jordan Peterson look silly. Peterson is a big boy. He can do that on his own.
Some people thought that Wikipedia has a leftist bias, so they made Conservapedia.
Some people thought that Twitter has a leftist bias, so they made Gab.
Both of those were, ahem, hugely successful! So, when will the right launch their own conservative search engine?
What will it be called?
Yahitler?
Alt-right Vista?
A-hole-OL?
Dick Dick Go?
I don’t know if that’s a real smile. If it is it strikes me as forced and creepy rather than cheerful.
@flexitarian haruspex
Did Hugo and Jake not go full asshole with the rest of the Youtube Atheists? I used to listen to them and I loved when the read the Chick Tracts, but I unsubbed a long while ago and been afraid to look at the channel again. There’s so few Youtube Atheists who aren’t Alt-Right now.
@Yutolia the Green Hash Thing
Same to be honest.
@calmdown, all
They are two of only about a half-dozen YouTube atheists I indulge anymore. If you don’t mind a little crude humour, I recommend them to you.
@calmdown
Double post but checking their channel so far they’ve been unboxing stuff and taking the piss out of Jordan Peterson’s book.
@Laugher at Bigots
I’m fine with a bit of crude. Better than bigotry.
@Ooglyboggles @Laugher at Bigots
Thank you, maybe I will resubscribe to them. I see they are still doing the Chick Tracts which were my favorites. 🙂