“There Are No Socialist Intellectuals”: The Hypocrisy of Jordan Peterson
Summary
TLDRThis video critiques Jordan Peterson's claim that there are no great socialist intellectuals, exposing contradictions in his stance. The creator highlights Peterson's endorsement of socialist authors like George Orwell and Ernest Hemingway, despite his anti-socialist rhetoric. The video explores the diversity of socialist ideologies, explaining how terms like socialism and communism are often misunderstood. It also addresses Peterson's intellectual inconsistencies and how he seems to appreciate works by leftist thinkers, which contradicts his public dismissals of socialism. The creator aims to reveal Peterson's cognitive dissonance on this subject.
Takeaways
- 🤔 The tweet claiming 'there are no great socialist intellectuals by definition' sparks the author's contemplation due to its cognitive dissonance.
- 📚 Jordan Peterson's recommended literature list includes numerous socialist authors, contradicting his claim against socialist intellectuals.
- 🧠 The video aims to highlight the cognitive dissonance or 'doublethink' exhibited by Jordan Peterson regarding socialism and intellectuals.
- 📖 The script discusses the definition of socialism, emphasizing its diversity and range of ideologies beyond authoritarian models.
- 🏛 Examples of socialist leaders like Joseph Stalin and Salvador Allende are used to illustrate the vastly different outcomes of socialist governance.
- 👥 The video points out that socialism is often misunderstood and conflated with authoritarianism, which is not inherently part of its ideology.
- 📚 George Orwell, a democratic socialist, is admired by Peterson, yet his political stance is overlooked in favor of his literary contributions.
- 📘 Kurt Vonnegut, another author on Peterson's list, is misrepresented as anti-leftist, despite his clear support for democratic socialism.
- 📑 The script challenges the reductionist view that all socialists are authoritarian, highlighting various anti-authoritarian branches of socialism.
- 🤷♂️ The video suggests that Peterson's dismissal of socialist intellectuals is not consistent with the breadth of socialist thought and his own literary influences.
- 📈 The script concludes by emphasizing the intellectual immaturity of making sweeping statements about socialism and intellectuals, especially when one's own influences contradict such claims.
Q & A
What is the main point of the video script?
-The main point of the video script is to highlight the cognitive dissonance exhibited by Jordan Peterson, particularly regarding his claim that 'there are no great socialist intellectuals by definition,' while his recommended literature list includes works by known socialist authors.
What does the term 'doublethink' refer to as used in the script?
-In the script, 'doublethink' is used to describe the act of holding two contradictory beliefs simultaneously, a term originally coined by George Orwell in his novel '1984'.
What is the script's stance on socialism?
-The script argues that socialism is often misunderstood and misrepresented, being both equated with authoritarian regimes and used as a pejorative for more moderate political figures. It emphasizes the diversity of socialist ideologies.
Who are some of the socialist figures mentioned in the script?
-The script mentions figures like Joseph Stalin, Salvador Allende, George Orwell, and Kurt Vonnegut, highlighting the different outcomes and beliefs within socialism.
Why does the script mention George Orwell's '1984'?
-The script mentions '1984' to draw a parallel between the concept of 'doublethink' and Jordan Peterson's contradictory views on socialist intellectuals.
What is the significance of the recommended literature list on Jordan Peterson's website as discussed in the script?
-The recommended literature list is significant because it includes works by socialist authors that Peterson himself admires, contradicting his claim that there are no great socialist intellectuals.
What is the script's view on the diversity of socialist ideologies?
-The script views socialism as an umbrella term with many diverse offshoots, including democratic socialism, libertarian socialism, market socialism, Marxism-Leninism, anarcho-syndicalism, and Trotskyism, among others.
Why does the script discuss the works of Kurt Vonnegut?
-The script discusses Vonnegut's works to counter the misconception that he was anti-socialist, highlighting his admiration for democratic socialism and his opposition to authoritarianism.
What is the script's critique of Jordan Peterson's tweet about socialist intellectuals?
-The script critiques Peterson's tweet as a reductionist take that he himself does not seem to believe, given his admiration for works by socialist authors.
What is the script's position on the relationship between capitalism and corporatism?
-The script suggests that failures of capitalism are sometimes attributed to 'corporatism' or 'corporatocracy,' which is a political system dominated by corporate interests, rather than capitalism itself.
What is the purpose of the video script?
-The purpose of the video script is not to convert viewers to any particular political ideology but to demonstrate the intellectual inconsistency in Jordan Peterson's public statements and recommendations.
Outlines
🤔 Cognitive Dissonance of Jordan Peterson
The paragraph discusses a tweet by Jordan Peterson claiming that there are no great socialist intellectuals by definition. The author reflects on this statement, noting the cognitive dissonance it presents, especially considering Peterson's admiration for George Orwell's work, '1984', which includes the concept of 'doublethink'. The author aims to highlight this dissonance through the video, contrasting Peterson's claim with his own recommended literature list, which includes works by known socialists like George Orwell and Ernest Hemingway. The paragraph also delves into a brief explanation of socialism, addressing common misconceptions and the diversity within socialist ideologies, ranging from democratic socialism to Marxism-Leninism. It contrasts authoritarian socialist regimes with democratic socialist leaders like Salvador Allende of Chile, who achieved positive social reforms, and points out the inconsistency in labeling both Mao Zedong and moderate politicians like Barack Obama as socialists.
📚 Jordan Peterson's Recommended Leftist Literature
This paragraph continues the critique of Jordan Peterson's stance on socialism by examining his recommended literature list, which includes numerous works by authors with socialist or leftist ideologies. Despite Peterson's tweet suggesting a dismissal of socialist intellectuals, the list features authors like Leo Tolstoy, an anarchist, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky, who had a complex relationship with socialism. The author points out the irony in Peterson recommending books by these authors while also making reductionist claims about socialism. The paragraph also touches on the broader spectrum of leftist thought, from anti-authoritarian socialism to libertarian socialism, and critiques the common conflation of capitalism with corporatism. It concludes by emphasizing that the video's purpose is not to promote any particular ideology but to highlight the intellectual inconsistency in Peterson's public statements and recommendations.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Socialism
💡Cognitive Dissonance
💡Doublethink
💡Authoritarian Socialism
💡Democratic Socialism
💡Intellectual
💡Corporatism
💡Anarchism
💡Recommended Literature
💡State Capitalism
💡Anti-authoritarian
Highlights
The tweet claiming 'there are no great socialist intellectuals by definition' sparks cognitive dissonance in its author.
Jordan Peterson's support for George Orwell contradicts his dismissal of socialist intellectuals.
1984's concept of 'doublethink' is used to illustrate the contradiction in Peterson's views.
Socialism is defined as advocating for community ownership or regulation of production and distribution.
Socialism encompasses a wide range of ideologies, from democratic to libertarian socialism.
Examples of socialist leaders with contrasting outcomes: Joseph Stalin vs. Salvador Allende.
Jordan Peterson's claim that there are no socialist intellectuals is disputed.
Peterson's recommended literature includes works by known socialist authors.
George Orwell, a democratic socialist, is highlighted as influential to Peterson.
Kurt Vonnegut, an anti-authoritarian who admired democratic socialism, is misrepresented by Peterson's use of his work.
Vonnegut's admiration for Eugene Debs, an influential American socialist, is noted.
The video challenges the conflation of socialism with authoritarianism.
Corporatism is distinguished from capitalism, with Peterson and others arguing failures are due to corporatism.
The video points out the irony of Peterson recommending numerous leftist authors despite his criticism of socialism.
Leo Tolstoy, listed in Peterson's recommendations, was an anarchist and anti-capitalist.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky's early socialist beliefs and later anti-socialist stance are mentioned.
The video concludes by emphasizing the diversity of leftist thought and the inconsistency in Peterson's views.
Transcripts
"there are no great socialist intellectuals by definition" this is a tweet that I think about
often not because I have any massive desire to disprove it nor do I plan to flesh out
an in-depth argument as to why socialism I'm not Albert Einstein yes he did write that the reason
this tweet lives rent free in my head is due to the egregious display of cognitive dissonance by
its author Jordan Peterson Jordan Peterson has publicly shown his support for George Orwell
and his works he's a fan of Orwell's magnum opus 1984 as am I if you've read 1984 then you're aware
that in the novel Orwell constructs a language unique to the universe he created one of the
terms "doublethink" is meant to describe the state of holding two contradictory beliefs in this video
I hope to point out the double think or cognitive dissonance of Jordan Peterson to get back to his
claim that there is by definition no such thing as a socialist intellectual let alone a great one
I want to really quickly talk about socialism and what exactly it means a lot of people hear
socialism and they immediately think of the Soviet Union Mao's China North Korea and all
these authoritarian States yet in some cases those same people simultaneously use socialism as
a pejorative to describe milquetoast liberals or social Democrats how many times have you heard an
anti-socialist use the term socialist to describe Barack Obama or Kamala Harris or more recently Tim
Walz but how could these people concurrently believe that socialism is both Mao Zedong and
also Tim Walz it's because they don't know what Socialism or communism for that matter is for
the sake of this video let's use the dictionary definition socialism is a political and economic
theory of social organization which Advocates that the means of production distribution and exchange
should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole but this definition in my opinion does a
bad job at covering just how diverse socialist beliefs are socialism today seems to be more of
an umbrella term with many offshoots than it is a dogmatic Doctrine under the Socialist umbrella
we have vast ideologies ranging from democratic socialism libertarian socialism Market socialism
Marxism-leninism anarcho syndicalism trotskyism and a lot more to really Drive home how different
some of these ideologies are from one another we can look at two socialists from different schools
of thought Joseph Stalin from the Soviet Union you might have heard of him who by the way is
considered a state capitalist by some but for the sake of argument we can refer to him as an
authoritarian socialist or communist and Salvador Allende of Chile a Democratic Socialist both of
these men and their regimes boast the Socialist label yet produced very different outcomes Allende
was able to lower inflation raise real wages for the working class improve literacy rates
and much more up until he was killed in a coup in 1973 Stalin on the other hand well he Stalined he
did he did some not so chill [ __ ] I say all of this to say when Jordan Peterson makes a reductive
claim like there are no socialist intellectuals are we really to believe that not a single person
from any of these schools of thought under the Socialist umbrella was an intellectual no and
I can prove that Jordan Peterson does not think so either this is Jordan's recommended literature
page on his website and for a man who does not think highly of the intellectual abilities of
the Socialist you would think that the first three books on his recommended literature
page would not be written by socialists Ernest Hemingway was a socialist George Orwell remember
him we just talked about him not too long ago appears multiple times in Peterson's list and
is a Democratic Socialist and I know that Jordan knows this about Orwell because he's admitted it
multiple times he's actually said that Orwell was both influential to him and a socialist in like
the span of 10 seconds and so he wrote this book called Road to Wigan Pier which I would highly
recommend it's on a reading list I made it's on my website you can check that out those are books
that have been particularly influential to me and so Orwell was a socialist I became aware of how
prescient George Orwell was with regards to the dangers of totalitarian he was one of the first
intellectuals in the west there are no great socialist intellectuals by definition one of
the first intellectuals Peterson can also be seen in a video reading Harrison Bergeron by
Kurt Vonnegut I'm going to read a short story by Kurt Vonnegut Jr called Harrison Bergeron Vonnegut
is my personal favorite author I have everything he's ever written and this pillow with some book
covers on it I'm a huge Vonnegut Stan I love the dude I I really like him so to see Jordan
use Harrison Bergeron a story about revisionism authoritarianism and the suppression of individual
skills to imply that Kurt was an anti-leftist or anti-socialist author is highly dishonest Kurt was
anti-authoritarian but he wrote extensively about his admiration for Democratic socialism he's even
gone as far as naming the protagonist in his novel Hocus Pocus after Eugene Debs Debs was
an influential American Socialist who was jailed for opposing the draft for the first world war yet
managed to secure almost a million votes for the Socialist Party from prison without ever hitting
the campaign Trail kind of badass I I'll give it to him he was a cool guy Vonnegut greatly admired
Debs and what he stood for if you've read Kurt's Works namely his Memoir a man without a country
it becomes abundantly clear where his sympathies lie I say all of this to say I'm sure you could
imagine my surprise when I saw the comment section of the video where Peterson is reading Vonnegut's
story and found people claiming that Vonnegut was anti-socialist don't get me wrong I can understand
why someone would read Harrison Bergeron a story about handicapping individual strengths to create
a more Equitable society and immediately think about the authoritarian communist regimes of old
but again this fails to take into consideration the many anti-authoritarian offshoots of
socialist thought for some intellectuals in the anti-authoritarian left equality isn't necessarily
the main focus at all typically the emphasis is placed on freedom and adjusting the proximity
between the worker and the means of production the lessening of inequality is seen as a downstream
positive consequence when we think about the negative effects of capitalism or countries
ravaged by it thinkers like Jordan Peterson will say that's not capitalism that's corporatism
actually I just heard his boss Ben Shapiro used this line like a few days ago not too long ago
which is corporatism it is not capitalism and then when that system inevitably falls on its face
capitalism gets blamed I don't know if Ben means to be using the word corporatism here a lot of the
time when people use corporatism they mean to be using the word corporatocracy which refers to a
political system dominated by corporate interest corporatism on the other hand isn't necessarily
as malevolent it advocates for a system where corporate groups and different economic sectors
such as agriculture labor or Guild associations come together and negotiate contracts or policy
based on their common interest in theory this is not meant to produce wildly disparate outcomes
and is predicated on good faith negotiations and genuinely looking out for one another in theory
anyway I might just be being pedantic back to the video it got really sunny it's nice now regardless
capitalists don't seem to have a problem brushing off the failures of capitalism as actually being
the failures of corporatocracy yet one modern-day socialists claim that the failures of past
authoritarian Communist States are actually due to State capitalism or authoritarianism those same
capitalists no longer accept that line of logic I know this is supposed to be a video about Jordan
so I digress sorry back to his socialist riddled recommended literature blog so we've already
established that the first three authors on this page are socialists so let's see who's fourth Leo
Tolstoy Tolstoy although not considering himself a socialist due to his belief that the state could
not bring about a true socialist society actually opposed all forms of hierarchy he was an anarchist
and for those familiar with where anarchists are situated on the frankly rudimentary and
outdated political Spectrum they're far left in addition to not being a socialist Tolstoy
was vehemently anti- capitalist so so far we have three books written by socialists and one
written by an anarchist you're recommending a good amount of leftist authors Jordan next on the list
is Dostoyevsky who influenced Peterson quite a bit and is an author who I think is incredible
but Fyodor Dostoyevsky was not a socialist well he was in his youth then there was this whole
imprisonment mock execution thingy and he came out the other end anti-socialist it's it's an
interesting story and he wrote phenomenal books for the sake of brevity I will list
out the remaining leftist authors on Jordan's recommended book list instead of going one by
one it's important to note that since there are so many different schools of socialist Anarchist and
leftist thought as I've already stated many times and as we've seen with Tolstoy I'll just use the
term leftist to Encompass any author holding anti- capitalist sentiment Huxley who appears
here multiple times Hemingway again Steinbeck who appears here multiple times Hunter S Thompson this
one's interesting because he was always thought of as being a Libertarian gun lover which by
the way is not incompatible with socialism but in reality he was a Che Guevera loving left-leaning
dude William Golding and more Orwell I think I'm just going to stop counting here cuz I feel like
I'm beating a dead horse I don't think you need me to list out all of the leftists on
anti-leftist Jordan Peterson's recommended book list now I'm not here to argue that since Jordan
enjoyed a book or two from someone he disagreed with politically that makes him some sort of
a hypocrite that's not at all what I'm saying I love Dostoyevsky's and Yukio Mishima's books and
I would definitely disagree with them on a great many political issues who cares the issue here
is that these are books that Jordan has openly stated influenced him so much so that he feels
that they are critical works of literature and everyone should read them for Jordan Peterson
to make a statement like the one he tweeted and then have an entire recommended literature page
on his website riddled with leftists shows a great deal of intellectual immaturity on his
part again this video is not meant to convince anyone to embrace socialism capitalism theocracy
liberalism or any other ism it's just here to show how Jordan Peterson in his blinding hatred of the
opposition willfully throws out reductionist takes that he himself doesn't seem to believe
and he looks like a fool because of it that's all I wanted to say sorry if this video is random and
like many years too late because I just started a you YouTube Channel and I always wanted to talk
about this anyways bye thanks for watching oh and subscribe if you if you if you don't mind
تصفح المزيد من مقاطع الفيديو ذات الصلة
All Forms of Marxism in 15 Minutes!!! - Leninism, Maoism & More
"Socialism always fails" is a stupid argument
A história do socialismo e a luta pela Revolução Brasileira
#01: How to tell if someone is a socialist!
Communism Vs Socialism Vs Capitalism | What's the difference between Communism Socialism Capitalism?
Socialism for Absolute Beginners
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)