Jordan Peterson Is Not Evil (And Why That Matters)

First published on June 26, 2019

I had a strange conversation with a friend of mine a few weeks ago. I shared an idea I had learned from the work of clinical psychologist and author (and, let's not forget, internet sensation) Jordan Peterson. I think it was the way he described an ideology (something like: being able to predict everything someone believes based on knowing another thing they believe), but it could easily have been any number of his interesting ideas. My friend's reaction was stark:

"Jordan Peterson? I hate that guy."

What made this especially interesting, as the conversation went on, was that it became apparent that my friend had no direct experience of Jordan Peterson. He hadn't read his book, he hadn't watched any videos; he hadn't even watched any of the (sometimes fairly viral) interviews Peterson has done. And yet the reaction was strong. There's a reason I put 'hate' in bold and italics. That's how he said it.

This isn't the only conversation I've had like this, but it was the most stark, because this particular friend is someone I associate with being free-thinking, a scientist, interested in evidence and pursuing the truth. And yet here he was, jumping to a quite extreme conclusion, willing to speak forcefully about Jordan Peterson, without having interacted with almost anything about him.

I pushed my friend on this a little, remembering a tweet I saw (from someone, sadly, I don't know, and can't remember enough to link to - if you know, please do let me know). She said that she had made a decision years ago to only speak (or write) about people whose work she had read first hand. Only years later did she realise what a transformational practice this was. Whilst I think in totally this is difficult and I don't quite hold this as tightly as she does, it is something I try to lean into. Before I jump to conclusions about someone or something: "Hold on a sec, Robbie. Can I watch or read or listen to something this person has said? Can I make my own judgment? What if they are being misunderstood here? What if I were to give them the benefit of the doubt?"

I was also empowered to push my friend by a brilliant response that Farrah Storr, the editor of Elle UK, gave on Late Night Women's Hour. In response to another guest saying "Some people think he [Peterson] is an arsehole," Storr said something like: "Some people do. And there are 600 hours of his videos on YouTube. Go and watch them, and once you've done that, come back and tell me he's an arsehole."

A few weeks after our conversation, my friend messaged me, saying he felt a little embarrassed about the strength of his reaction given he hadn't read Peterson's book. He sent me two articles which were - as far as he remembered - how he had formed his opinion about Peterson. I read them; they were (I thought) rather snipey articles from the New York Times and the Guardian. [I could almost have predicted what they said, of course, based on the ideologies of those publications.] In these articles, they certainly weren't giving him the benefit of the doubt.

But why does this matter to me, to you or to us? Well, it matters because Jordan Peterson is an incredibly interesting thinker, deeply trying to help the world be a better place. In some ways, it makes complete sense that I would be interested in him. He has decades of clinical experience supporting people one-to-one, and he is using that wisdom more broadly to try to help make the world a better place. Those two things are things I'm fascinated by, and that I try to do in my own work.

But it's more than that. Jordan Peterson's work, and in particular his book, 12 Rules for Life, is having an amazingly positive impact on many, many people. I had heard stories about this, but it was a few months ago when it really landed for me. I met a 21 year-old man who had been a student, and his life was getting out of control: drinking, drugs, who knows what else? He found Peterson's videos and took responsibility for his life: finding meaning, getting things in order, changing things, speaking the truth to try to change the university's culture at cost to himself. There are literally thousands of stories like this.

Jordan Peterson's work can be incredibly profound for people. He is certainly not 'evil', which some people seem to think. He is not 'alt right'. In my view, he is not worthy of hate. He is just a man struggling to do his best to make the world a better place.

The reason I'm writing this article (and to be completely honest I almost didn't - I almost felt unable to speak about it and there was serious Resistance) is because the work of Jordan Peterson has made a real difference to me and it has made a real difference to some of my clients, who have discovered it themselves or with whom I have shared some of his ideas.

The work of the press and certain parts of social media to paint Peterson as evil is quite 'of the modern age'. More on that, maybe, another time. This piece is simply me doing my bit to undo the kind of misinformation that people like my friend have absorbed. It is my encouragement to you: give him the benefit of the doubt. It might just change your life. Or the life of someone you know.