[CliffFletcher]

What's interesting is how someone who speaks with the erudition of Peterson has managed to become a public intellectual at all. We're accustomed to public figures speaking in simplistic and sentimental ways about even the most complex issues. The first I heard of Peterson was when he was interviewed on CBC when the gender pronoun thing came out, and I was immediately struck with the sophistication of the ideas he was trying to get across, and the utter failure of the interviewer to understand or address his arguments.

It's almost unheard for people to talk in the media about social and political issues in that way. Even highly intelligent people discussing complex issues almost always dumb down their message and the way they deliver it to the public. Peterson doesn't do that. And I think that's part of his appeal - the public can handle more complexity than the gatekeepers in the media gives them credit for. And social issues aren't simply matters of common sentiment - there are stubbornly complex ethical and ideological issues at the root of them.