[Hack&Lube]

I have a colleague who is a big fan of Peterson and went to Peterson's last talk here in town. He often makes jokes about pronouns, identities, and checking his own white privilege . He is also pro guns, is anti-vax, and is anti Trudeau. You know where that is going.

I am very familiar with Peterson from that spectrum of his fandom and gives me pause to cringe.

On the other hand, I am also familiar with Peterson from watching his Channel 4 interview where he rigorously defended himself against a hack journalist. I also watched a lot of his decade old U of T lectures which were captivating to hear regarding his view of structure, history, and values of western civilization. Many write off his self-help material as schlock but I generally agree with a lot of his "clean your room" and "be a man" material. Just getting on with it and not complaining and being responsible and setting an example for others is a message that is forgotten in modern society and I enjoy hearing it.

Peterson is a mixed bag and most recently seems like a broken man. He has a right to point out academic hypocrisy and demand equality vs equity but in my opinion he's going off the deep end from his soap-box diving board because it gives him attention and monetary benefit to appeal to the right-wing shock-jock crowd. He labored under academic salaries for years but he recently gained internet celebrity status and wealth late in life and he obviously likes it.

I will still pay attention when his name comes up because I've like hearing some of the things he has to say when he isn't trying to appeal to the Shapiro and Rogan fanbase or stir up controversy in Canadian politics. I'm a very skeptical person but for some reason I always found a measure of appeal in his self-help material. One of my favorite bands even has him straight-up talking through the back half of one of their songs @ 3:40