By David Futrelle
So the bad news is that Jordan Peterson seems to have discovered the NPC meme, and it’s managed to burrow its way into his unconsciousness.
Peterson is currently on an 85-city tour world tour, and he’s been writing a sort of intermittent tour diary for Canada’s National Post. One recent entry in the series, posted earlier this month, offers a self-portrait of a man on the edge. Possibly on the edge of the toilet, attempting to dislodge whatever it is that forms in one’s bowels when one literally eats nothing but beef and salt and water for months on end. (Dr. Peterson, decidedly not a medical doctor, claims to have gone on the diet to counteract some sort of autoimmune disorder; there is no evidence that all-beef diets help with autoimmune disorders or indeed with much of anything.)
The title of the piece gives a pretty good indication as to his mood: “It’s 2:39 a.m. in Oslo and this irritating man has pushed me too far.” Like Gregor Samsa in Kafka’s Metamorphosis, Peterson begins his tale by describing himself awakening from an uneasy dream; alas, he has not been transformed into a giant cockroach, but remains Jordan Peterson.
The dream seems a fairly straightforward wish fullfillment dream, which involves Peterson beating the crap out of someone asking him a bunch of questions:
In my dream, I wrestled my opponent to the ground. He was still talking, mindlessly, mechanically, rapidly, nonstop. I bent his wrists to force his knuckles into his mouth. His arms bent like rubber and, even though I managed the task, he did not stop babbling. I woke up. 2:39 in Oslo. I’m not in good spirits.
The man in the dream is a fairly transparent stand-in for the “irritating man” of the piece’s headline, a French journalist who had flown to Rochester, New York and then to Oslo to interview him. Peterson didn’t much enjoy the interview, largely because the interviewer kept asking questions, as interviewers are wont to do.
Peterson attempted to explain to this poor fellow his theory about why young men are so angry today, which in his mind has to do with evil feminists telling them that all men are bad. And also that competence is bad.
I told him that young men are … faced with a Devil’s choice: if they are ambitious and competent (or even not ambitious or competent) then they will be treated, not least by themselves, as if they are expressing precisely the traits that produced this terrible [patriarchal] tyranny, and are no better than the infinite oppressors of the past. This happens because it has become acceptable in our time to put forward a version of history, the present and the future that is based on a deep hatred for men (or, even worse, a deep hatred for competence).
Peterson was evidently quite astonished and offended that even after he explained all this to the journalist he still had questions, possibly because nothing Peterson says ever makes any goddamned sense.
He had brought a list of pre-prepared questions, “hard questions,” as he considered them, and did not have the confidence in his own desperation and curiosity to pursue the question that was actually guiding him. He considered himself a liberal, meaning someone attracted by the more radical end of the left, and the story I was telling him was simply not comprehensible: not without the demolition of his entire manner of looking at the world. So he did not have the ears to hear, and actually repeated the question three more times. I gave the same answer each time, to no avail.
After the interview was over, Peterson returned to his hotel room, promptly deciding that the interviewer in question was basically an ideological automaton — that is, what many of his fans (and quite a few Twitter trolls) would call an NPC, the human equivalent of a Non-Player Character in a video game programmed with a limited set of prepackaged responses.
I hadn’t spent two hours talking to a person. The person wasn’t there, or was barely there (even though the journalist had the makings, I would say, of a fine young man). I couldn’t reach him. Instead, I had a very irritating discussion with an ideologically possessed puppet and that was both too familiar and too unpleasant.
And so Peterson went to bed that evening convinced there was nothing wrong with any of his answers; the real problem was that he was talking to a robot man. And then he had a dream about beating up that robot man as he “mindlessly, mechanically” babbled on.
This isn’t the first time Peterson has dismissed an interviewer as a sort of NPC. He did the same during his recent interview with Helen Lewis for the UK edition of GQ. “I could replace you with someone else who thinks the same way,” he told her.
That’s the pathology of ideological possession. It’s not good and it’s not good that I know where you stand on things once I know a few things [about you].
Lewis responded to this by proving that his assumptions about at least some of what she believes were dead wrong (as you can see if you keep watching the full video). But he clearly learned nothing from being shown up in this way. Peterson seems to have grabbed onto the NPC idea too tightly to give it up.
Needless to say, many of his fans have picked up on this, and they’re delighted. We can probably expect an entire new genre of YouTube video, featuring Jordan Peterson (allegedly) DESTROYING one (alleged) NPC feminist after another. And there will be memes. Of course there will be memes. Because the people who like to call other people NPC robot monsters tend to be just a teensy bit predictable.
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@marceline:
In their minds, when anyone not a wealthy, white, middle-aged man also got a voice. Sort of like the ‘drop of blood’ rule in reverse. If ANYONE but one of these pompous twits gets ANY podium time they’re BEING SILENCED!11!!!!111!!eleventyone!
If their opinions are so strong, you’d think they could withstand differing ones also existing – yet they’re the ones who are first to throw out ‘snowflake’. As usual with these types, every accusation is a confession…
@Fujimoto
It is funny, but it really can’t be emphasized enough how big a talking point among the self-styled “skeptic” crowd this is. I can name any number of these YouTube talkers that claim–without a lick of irony–that they abhor “ideology” as a very concept, because it gets in the way of their galaxy-brained rational skepticism.
What it means is that anybody who has any kind of organizing principles in shaping their personal and political philosophy is automatically wrong and a detriment to society regardless of what those organizing principles are. You can be a compassionate humanist fighting for the justice embodied by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. or Richard Spencer, either way, it doesn’t matter: you’re an ideologue and therefore bad.
It’s a variation on the “both sides are equally bad” meme that they use to discredit Antifa or BLM as the equivalent of the Proud Boys or Neo-Nazis, which is not only disingenuous, but it’s unspeakably lazy, which makes it perfect for YouTube slouches whose engagement doesn’t go further than reading Buzzfeed headlines and animating a tuxedo avatar to nod occasionally for that sweet sweet Patreon money.
I really wish that more of the YouTube discourse from the feminist side of things really dug into this talking point, because it’s the poisoned tree that all the other fruit originates from, not only because it puts basic human decency on a spectrum with fascism as if they’re just two pinnies of different colours, but then it tells really impressionable young YouTube viewers that they’re smarter for not getting involved at all. It’s a poisoned tree that spawns all the more obnoxious memes, like “feminism is a religion,” “BLM is the new Klan”, “Antifa are violent thugs,” “social justice is just victim culture,” etc. All those shorthands that internet talkers use to poison the well before their opponents have even said a word.
I have thought about doing such videos myself, but I have other interests along with an introverted nature that has prevented me from taking that leap.
@Jesalin
Old boys club. But the guy who helped him get it has expressed regrets.
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/2018/05/25/i-was-jordan-petersons-strongest-supporter-now-i-think-hes-dangerous.html
Tenure is one of those things I have a love/hate relationship with when it comes to academics. So many would be persecuted without it, but it leaves some of the worst people to collect a paycheque from prestigious institutions, which then they use for legitimacy (thinking that J. Philippe Rushton asshole here, but Janice Fiamengo also leaps to mind). Somehow Canada seems to specialize in this.
I kind of gave up beef when it became expensive and I could get ground turkey cheaper than hamburger. Now my capacity for consuming beef seems to have been diminished. My innards are currently in an uproar after two successive weekends hosting* some friends whose diet is rather beef-heavy. One of them cannot eat pork and also doesn’t like chicken. Unfortunately, budgetary constraints preclude eating out like we’ve been wont to do, so we do more cooking. :/
So, reading about JP’s all-beef-all-the-time diet is making me crampy.
*This is a regular thing now, since they’re working Renaissance festivals in my area on an ongoing basis and would either have to camp (impossible due to one of them being on cpap) or get a hotel room (too expensive and none near the festival site) or drive two hours each way.
@Mish:
A friend with IBS cannot tolerate wine or beer or fruit juice, but she can drink whiskey without upsetting her stomach. It has something to do with how certain sugars ferment in the digestive tract, and whiskey doesn’t have those sugars. As someone who has guts of iron, I find it confusing. Anyway, the whiskey thing could be true for Mikhaila Peterson, too. That said, scurvy most definitely is a thing. It’ll be interesting to see how long the Petersons are able to stick with this plan before their teeth start falling out.
That’s assuming neither one of them is a lying shitweasel.
I’m not going to take that particular bet, no matter what odds you give me….
Oops, his daughter takes supplements, so he might, too.
https://donotlink.it/W0wZ
A-ha! They DO take supplements. From MP’s website:
“Dad gets’s vitamin infusions (not that he’s low, but it can’t hurt so…), He doesn’t bother taking anything other than vitamin C anymore.”
https://donotlink.it/n0mv
How long did he claim to have gone without sleep? 25 days, wasn’t it? That makes him a lying shitweasel for sure.
Sorry for the double post. My friend with IBS has reported weird symptoms after consuming fructose, but insomnia was not among them.
So Peterson’s response to getting asked hard questions was to shove his head farther up his own ass than it already was? Color me shocked.
I’ve been following the strange tale of Jeep Peterson for a while. Or Reverse PB and J and some call him. And as a Canadian I’m disgusted that this fucking zombie is branded an intellectual.
From everything I’ve seen of the man, from his shitty books to this latest speech he strikes me as a man totally devoid of empathy. He doesn’t seem to understand parenthood, friendship or even the basic act of not being an asshole.
The list of things Jordan Peterson doesn’t understand stretches on a mile long and the list of things he does understand seems limited to conning bigots out of their money.
This strikes me as a man who thirty years ago decided he had nothing further to learn and if they were alive, the men he admires like Socrates and Aristotle would be throwing stones at him. Along with just about anybody with a sense of decency anywhere.
Been reading Jordan Peterson’s daughter’s carnivore diet site. Now I don’t judge other people’s food choices. Suffice to say I’d rather go for tea round Jim Jones’ house.
Weirdly she links to a review on Livestrong. Now that’s a site I quite like and trust. Their opinion?
Are you a Massai? No? Then you’ll die.
This whole NPC thing is really just the re-creation of the concept of a Philosophical Zombie, or p-Zombie, and that idea dates back to Descartes. (And, in fact, the RationalWiki page I looked that up on actually links to ‘NPC’ on the Alt-Right Glossary page, so I’m hardly the first to think this. Their comment is “Notably the [NPC] term is also a reinvention of the concept of the p-zombie, only for people who cannot relate to the world except through pop-culture.”)
As for Peterson in general… I actually ended up talking about him with a couple of friends in Toronto. One of them has a history of finding people talking about interesting ideas and then looking at them relatively non-critically, and he started as pro-Peterson. (Nice guy, always curious, but doesn’t really have the expertise to spot ‘Just So’ stories as such.) The other one was ex-military and mid-transition, and shut things down pretty quickly by pointing out that she had actually read the law that Peterson first got in the news complaining about, and Peterson was flat-out lying. I mostly added interpretation of the law in general more than that law in particular. I’m pretty sure we managed to convince the first friend that Peterson was talking out of the wrong end of his digestive tract, but given history, he may just find someone else to uncritically believe in the future.
Sometimes I’m very glad to have taken the law and ethics courses in University. I’m also glad to have understood, unlike some other people I’ve talked to, that both of these were merely introductory courses that went to the level of ‘this is the general shape; for the details, consult an expert’.
I read the full version of the JBP article. He goes on to recount an incident from his youth in rural Alberta that demonstrated a breathtaking lack of empathy. I lack the ability to link, but if you’ve a strong stomach and are curious, it’s an even more disturbing look under his hood.
@Jenora Feuer
I actually took Canadian law in Grade 11 and even that prepared me for Peterson’s bullshit about the Human Rights Tribunals and “Freedom of Speech.” The Constitutional Case Law alone has been invaluable in discussions about hate speech laws and Charter Rights (Keegstra, Andrews, Oakes).
This is high school level law and Peterson couldn’t be arsed to look even that up!
On the meat diet thing, I’ve recently started cutting down on my meat consumption for a few reasons (cost, my increasing guilt, other personal things) but it makes me glad that it’s something dr fartface would disapprove of.
(I’m not a kid, just fartface is I hope within policy and generally he’s always making a face like he smells a fart, the real life Narrcissa Malfoy)
@Robert
Yeah, that isn’t exactly an anectode that puts anyone in a good light.
Link
So glad I never had this jerk as a professor.
@Victorious Parasol:
He also reminds me of Donnie Drumpf, who has the same apparent attitude. The way he’s treating journos for refusing to kiss his ass is such a blatant tell. He has no ideas, and nothing to engage with, either. No right-winger of any stripe does, really. All they want is to be bowed down to as authorities. Engaging with ideas? That’s for the shitlefties.
@AsAboveSoBelow
I guess he wasn’t aware that his daughter had posted publicly about his supplement use when he told Rogan that he didn’t take any vitamins. It makes what he said fairly monstrous though. Why lie about that? I don’t see how that accomplishes anything except potentially harming the people who follow him.
As for the whiskey thing, I am skeptical, but I will say that fermentation often helps with food allergies and sensitivities. I have a moderate allergy to soy, but I can eat soy sauce and fermented tofu just fine. I assume that the compound I normally react to get denatured in the process.
Off Topic but Captain Bonespurs strikes again…
https://metro.co.uk/2018/11/10/donald-trump-cancels-visit-to-ww1-military-cemetery-because-its-raining-8125310/
Wait so he’s angry about someone being ‘angry’ while congratulating himself on his anger.
Its almost like he’s the pot and the reviewer is the kettle
An all beef diet would be boring chicken is much better imo
@Marshmallow Stacey
Can you imagine the sound and fury the Rethuglicans would have made if Obama had done the same?
It’s both funny and deeply sad that they can’t see how amoral and unprincipled – and obvious – they really are.
@Vic:
They literally believe that criticism is censorship, jp fans said it outright. Which is essentially the same as saying “Free speech but only for ME”
But that’s always been the point all along.
A guy who thinks he’s gaining insight about other people from the projections of his own subconscious mind. This is the idol of a crowd that prides itself on its “rationality”.
@Marshmallow Stacey
Here’s another link:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/10/trump-baltics-balkans-mixup-le-monde-belleau-cemetery-paris
This is exactly the sort of thing that is the minimum expected of heads of state, representing one’s country when remembering its war dead. Supporting the military is something he purports to be devoted to, so I’m sure we’ll be hearing howls of shock and condemnation from his base.
Any day now.
I’ll wait.
Incidentally, I’ve been known to muddle Baltic and Balkan. But only the words themselves. I’ve never tried to implicate Lithuanians in the Siege of Sarajevo. And I’m not married to a Slovenian.