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Originally Posted by PepsiFree
I think, for a lot of people, that’s also why his star power is so confusing. “Try to be your best self before blaming everyone else” is good, solid, safe, and intellectually underwhelming advice. Granted, he’s caught on with people who really need the basics for exactly this reason, but no, his basic life advice and mostly uninspired self-help book are not the reason anyone in society is lining up to “shove” him anywhere.
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Exactly - this is a motte and bailey argument. Peterson has a lot to say, and a lot of it is nowhere near this benign. Suggesting that this is all his message entails is misleading.
That being said, generally when he goes on these interviews, he doesn't get into the stuff in his arsenal of ideas that's seriously objectionable or nonsensical. It's a TV interview, so it's all surface level, and at the surface level, Peterson is smart enough to come across as sensible and effective. That's actually part of the problem with his appeal, and these interviews where they utterly fail to "gotcha" him
exacerbate the problem. They make him look good and make criticizing him look like an idiot's pastime.
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While not everyone who likes Peterson is alt-right, everyone who is alt-right likes Peterson.
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I seriously doubt this is true, given that much of the alt-right is made up of white nationalists who are proud to be just that and think it's a righteous movement, whereas Peterson is routinely asked to denounce them on shows like this, and does so. I suspect there are plenty who are not fans of his at all.