I was listening to some audio bits from a pretty good podcast I quite enjoy. The Valuetainment podcast has been recently interviewing some prominent voices on the left and I think the contrast is quite health for us, the audience.

In said podcast, Sam Seder, the distinguished guest, did not waste the opportunity to call Jordan Peterson a lunatic, and this of course resulted in an uproar.

Sam proceeded to say that Jordan's philosophies hurt people, and that nobody benefits from his ideas.

Hrmmmm.... I don't know Rick....

Let's be fair....

I should preface what I'm about to say with a disclosure. I don't like Jordan Peterson. I think his ideas are antiquated, and he seems loves words salads a little too much for my taste.

Just to put an example, and to give some context to my disliking of him. He was once asked if he believed in God, his answer was to question the definitions of "You", of "believe" and "God".

But putting the fact that I don't personally like him aside, I could not say, in good conscience that he's not helpful to people who follow him.

As the day progressed, I ruminated on Sam's words.

Can I hold the notion in my mind that Jordan is a bit crazy, in a way that sometimes really smart people are, and also someone of great value to a lot of fellow humans?

Can I think his takes on womanhood, on trans issues and his tribal/allergic reactions to anything remotely left lack nuance, lack thought, and both believe him to offer good insight?

You see, at first these crossroads seem too contradicting, too difficult to coexist, but the more I think about them, the more I find loopholes of compatibility.

With these un-ironed thoughts, I walked home from my shop to propose them to my unsuspecting wife as we prepared dinner.

Big mistake....

I would call it a mistake, just because it made our dinner a little less amicable. When it comes to having a nice, possibly romantic evening, I do recommend staying away from political subjects. (there, some wisdom for you)

That being said, I tried to steel man the case for Jordan Peterson being a net positive in the world.

Can this be done? Can I do it? Can my lady do it?

The wagon fell off the track rather quickly, Hitler was brought up, along with other unpleasant characters of history.

BUT...

It's all good in the end nobody truly got hurt and proof of such fact is the very fact I'm typing away in a day like today.

I should say I think it's fair game to say you don't like someone as a person. It's honest, and that is something that we tend to lack in our society, honesty. But, I think it's a big of a disservice to negate all they've said or will say without thought.

I find Jordan's advice most of the time perfect for a society that existed 20, 30 years ago. A world that no longer exists, mind you, but is missed by a non negligible amount of people.

And I will conclude by saying what I said to my wife.

Messages can be simple, intuitive even, but it doesn't mean that everyone understands it in the same way. It doesn't mean that a repackaging didn't do a better job at reaching people.

I think that's Jordan's contribution... a good repackaging that reaches an audience that feels left behind the "crazy" modernity.

MenO