Jordan Peterson vs 20 Atheists | Surrounded

I know.  I know.  I said I was never going to talk about Jordan Peterson again.  But sometimes I can't help myself.  I'm fascinated by the disconnect between his cult-like status as a great intellectual on the one hand, and the utter nonsensical garbage that comes out of his mouth on the other hand.  Go ahead and watch the video and see for yourself.  The man isn't making any sense.

But I guess that raises the question: If the man isn't making any sense, then why are we still paying attention to him?  Why are all these guys even bothering to debate him?  

Jordan Peterson's infamous debate with Sam Harris, in which Jordan Peterson spent two hours refusing to give a straight answer as to what he meant by "true", was 8 years ago now.  Since that time, Peterson has continued this schtick in numerous interviews, conversations and debates, all of which are available on Youtube.  He keeps refusing say whether or not he's a Christian, he keeps refusing to say whether or not he believes in God, and he keeps refusing to give straight answers and engages in semantic quibbling.

So why are people still trying to pin him down on this?  You know he's not going to give a straight answer, just give up and move on with your life.

To be perfectly fair to the 20 atheists who appear in this video, it sounds like they were originally told the title of the video would be "One Christian versus 20 atheists" (which was apparently the original title of this video for the first 4 hours it was posted, until Jubilee changed it), and thus they can claim they were given some expectation Jordan Peterson would play the part of the Christian.  (But still, though, they really should have known better.  It's Jordan Peterson.)

And one wonders: what did Jubilee tell Jordan Peterson to get him to come?  He's so grumpy and angry in this video, and he gets upset every time someone tries to pin him down and clarify what he believes.  If he didn't want to answer these questions, then what was his motivation in showing up for this?  What did he expect to get out of it?

See also here: 

I was the guy that made Jordan Peterson look silly on @Jubilee. Here’s the background: pic.twitter.com/HslDO425sa

— Danny (@dannyphiltalk) May 27, 2025

I commented on the video:

It's 2025.  Why do these guys think they're going to get a straight answer out of Jordan Peterson?  What are they even doing here?  For that matter, what is Jordan Peterson doing?  He just acts annoyed when they try to pin him down make him give a straight  answer.  What did he think was going to happen at this event?

...okay, I'm sorry.  I just had to get that out of my system.  I'm going to go back to trying not to complain about Jordan Peterson again for the next year or so.  We'll see how long I make it this time. 

I'm still following Jordan Peterson on Twitter.  And every day, I'm getting more and more disillusioned with him.

I frequently get the urge to write a blogpost about how I've completely lost respect for Jordan Peterson.  And then I remember, I already wrote that post last year.  And I refrain.

But it strikes me now that I was too nice to him in that previous post.  I started that post off by saying:

"God help me, I actually like Jordan Peterson". 

After the past year of continuing to follow Jordan Peterson on Twitter, I would like to revise that statement somewhat.  Jordan Peterson is an idiot.  A moron.  An opportunist.  A grifter.  A pea-brained social media addict incapable of processing complex ideas.

This is the Tweet yesterday that finally sent me over the edge. 

Anyone object to this chart? https://t.co/ftU7AdhrIh

— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) January 15, 2023

...but I've been thinking of writing some version of this post now for the past few months.  

Ever since he got reinstated on Twitter, Jordan Peterson has been constantly attacking climate scientists and spreading global warming skepticism.  Who does he think he is?  When did this become his aware of expertise?

That, plus Jordan Peterson--at least as he comes off on Twitter--is filled with bile. He is constantly furious at various people. 

He is also a bully.  He will occasionally use his huge platform--his millions of followers--to attack ordinary people on Twitter.

There are theories out there that Jordan Peterson has deteriorated over the years.  Some people say he's a victim of audience capture.  Some people theorize that Jordan Peterson has an addictive personality, and that his recent craziness on Twitter is a result of a toxic social media addiction.  There's also the theory that he's being affected by the brain damage that he suffered as a result of the experimental detox treatment that he did in Russia.  Other people believe that Jordan Peterson has always had the same political views, but has  just become more blatant about it lately.

Whatever the reason, though, I'm done with the man.

This will be my last post on Jordan Peterson.  I'm unfollowing him on Twitter to eliminate the temptation of writing another post next year about how I'm even further disillusioned with him.  I'm just done.  Clearly there's no hope of anything intelligent coming from this man ever again.

That's been attempted already with Herostratus.

— Joel Swagman (@JoelswagmanJoel) May 30, 2022

For more on Herostratus, see HERE.

In case I'm being opaque, my intended point is that it's impossibly to enforce a ban on mentioning someone's name.  That being said, theoretically Jordan Peterson might be right.  If we could theoretically wave a magic wand so that the shooter's name and identity would be forgotten, perhaps that would stop the malevolent narcissists.  

Now here's a question: When was the last time you heard someone use "second world"?

— Joel Swagman (@JoelswagmanJoel) May 30, 2022

My high school social studies teacher taught us that "first world" and "third world" dates back to Cold War terminology in which the Communist countries were the "second world". But how many people actually know that?

On Jordan Peterson

God help me, I actually like Jordan Peterson.  Or at the very least, I find him interesting to listen to, which may or may not be the same thing.  (I've linked to his videos on this blog before HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.  And I've talked about him in the comments on Whisky's Blog: HERE. If you follow those links, you'll notice I sometimes talk about him in approving terms.)

I've also been following him on Twitter for a while, and it's noticeable that the Jordan Peterson on Twitter is not nearly as charming as the Jordan Peterson on Youtube.  The Jordan Peterson on Twitter isn't a thoughtful philosopher, but a typical knee-jerk reactionary rightist.  

Here are some random examples from his recent Twitter feed:

Leave those kids alone you virtue signaling puppet @JustinTrudeau https://t.co/pOR3xqKs9f

— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) January 25, 2022

Enough. Enough COVID mandates. Drop the damn masks and the idiot rules and get on with life. Today. https://t.co/hReCA19rMH

— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) January 24, 2022

You're not an "environmental leader." You're a hypocritical moralist willing to sacrifice whole productive provinces to your own apocalyptic doom-ridden delusions @s_guilbeault https://t.co/9lDIR2YFpE

— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) January 24, 2022

Those are just examples pulled from the past couple days, but take my word for it, it's frequently like this. Go ahead and follow him for a bit on Twitter, you'll see him angrily railing against environmentalists and Covid precautions in a way that make him indistinguishable from any other right-wing crank.

I'm not sure if this is because of the limitations of the medium, or if this is his true colors coming out.   (Or, as I sometimes suspect, Peterson might be mixing his drinking with his Twitter.  That's just pure supposition on my part, but it would explain it.) 

But either way, it's done a lot to disillusion me.

Jordan Peterson likes to portray himself as a nuanced thinker--and in his videos, sometimes he is--but on his Twitter account, he's full on right-wing, and he's completely embraced the goodguy/badguy tribalism of modern politics.

The issue that gets me the most though is his climate change denier stuff that he frequently spouts off on Twitter. This bothers me partly because I personally am really worried about climate change, but it also bothers me because Jordan Peterson is not a climate scientist, so I don't know where he gets his confidence to make pronouncements in this area.

P.S.--I've been thinking about writing this post for a while.   (I expressed these same opinions before HERE), but it was seeing this several times on Twitter today that finally prompted me to opine.  

Holy moly. I don't think I can do this. First words out of Peterson's mouth in the Joe Rogan interview are complete self parody. I can't even dunk on it. pic.twitter.com/hIDYPi0KDc

— bad_stats (@thebadstats) January 25, 2022