Jordan Peterson threatens everything of value in our society

From: Auckland Peace Action
Date: Monday 11th February

“In the lead-up to Jordan Peterson’s visit to New Zealand we have a duty to condemn his sexist, queerphobic, racist and deeply reactionary views,” says Iris Krzyzosiak of Auckland Peace Action.

Jordan Peterson, Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto turned right-wing media celebrity, is in New Zealand to promote his book Twelve Rules for Life. This book, while offering superficially useful life advice to an audience of disaffected white men, promotes a reactionary, misogynistic view of the world utterly in opposition to New Zealand values.

“While we as a country have many problems, we can be justly proud of our values of gender equality, egalitarianism and social inclusivity,” said Ms Krzyzosiak. “Jordan Peterson is actively trying to undermine these values. This is distinctly unhelpful.”

Dr Peterson is well-known for his objectionable opinions. He has bemoaned the fact that men cannot “control crazy women” by means of physical force. He has stated that feminists tolerate the US’s alliance with Saudi Arabia because of their “unconscious wish for brutal male domination”. And he claims that being expected to use correct pronouns for trans people is equivalent to Stalinism, a claim that astoundingly manages to both belittle those millions of people murdered by Stalin and equate the simple respectful act of referring to someone by their chosen description with an ideology of brutal authoritarianism.

Peterson’s associations are equally objectionable: he’s appeared on noted racist and misogynist Stefan Molyneux’s Youtube channel no fewer than three times, and he has publicly defended Lauren Southern’s attempts to disrupt rescue operations in the Mediterranean.

“While we have any number of better things to do than picket his talk, his presence in this country is worrying as it threatens many of the basic values of our society,” said Ms Krzyzosiak. “We strongly encourage the media and citizens of New Zealand to be very wary of Jordan Peterson’s statements and subject them to careful critical analysis, lest we fall victim to an ideology that will inflict more suffering on those people in our society who are already marginalised.”

ENDS

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