July 4, 2023
Why Jordan Peterson matters
By
M.B. Mathews
Unwavering free speech heroes are hard to come by when the Left is silencing their messages on social media, in entertainment, in the news, on campuses and even on the streets. But Dr. Jordan Peterson is willing to go to jail before he will allow his speech to be interfered with, especially as it pertains to pronoun use and trans "misgendering." He will not refer to a man in drag as "she" and he refuses to use the "proper" pronouns for a woman who claims to be a man. He said that
he will never do it because far from being
free speech, pronoun use and "gendering" is in fact
compelled speech.
Peterson lost his tenured job at the University of Toronto because he dared to swim across the deadly current of political correctness regarding pronouns. It is to his credit that he is now reaching millions more people online with his cultural, political, theological, and environmental opinions than he could ever have hoped to reach in the classroom.
His private clinical psychology practice also had to be shelved so that Peterson could go on European tours with Dave Rubin as Peterson brought his countercultural take on life, marriage, responsibility, and other matters. He has sold out venues everywhere he has gone. Why? Because he is bringing a new no-nonsense message to (mainly) younger people that what they have been led to believe about life is totally wrong: Life is hard, life is suffering, life has meaning only with responsibility. This is the polar opposite of what the Left promotes, which is "You are wonderful, you can be anything you want to be, you deserve to have self-esteem and no pushback.”
Peterson's message, by contrast, is work hard to get what you want and take a second look at your priorities. Take the burden on your own shoulders. Grow up. Think instead of react. Work hard. Such messages are not welcomed by the Left, but a huge number of young people across the culture
are responding to Peterson's tough love approach.