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The Jordan Peterson Phenomenon
from Part V - Transcendent Thinkers: Reflections on Controversial Intellectuals
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2020
This essay was triggered by the sudden rise in popularity of Jordan Peterson in 2017. As his platform grew, I received frequent queries on when we were going to “debunk” Peterson, “put him in his place,” “refute his ideas,” and so forth. There were a few voices of support but most people seemed to prejudge Peterson based on a handful of snippets from his writings, and especially video clips taken out of context. Peterson seems to engender passionate emotions (both for and against) his ideas presented in YouTube videos, podcasts, books, and his multi-city lecture tour routinely selling out large theaters. Given all this media attention, I felt it was time to examine with a skeptical eye Jordan Peterson’s ideas and, especially, the phenomenon surrounding him, so this was my introduction to a special issue of Skeptic we published in 2018 on the man.
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