Jordan Peterson: Gender Pronouns and Free Speech War

[T.C.]

this sounds like it might be an extrapolation of what Peterson has been ranting about for a few years now: basically, "trolls on the internet shouldn't be allowed to remain anonymous", which I think was motivated by his overly emotional response to people giving him crap on the internet. He seems to have trouble accepting the fact that the world is full of all kinds of people, some of them not very nice to behold.

I don’t think it’s that. He was a therapist for a long time, after all.

I think it’s his evolutionary psychology bent that gives him this take on online anonymity. As in:

“Humans have sorted out their differences since the beginning of time in a face-to-face manner. People modified and modulated their behaviour and attitudes in accordance with the people they interacted with every day. You couldn’t just go around saying anything to anyone whenever you wanted because you might get hit in the face, or worse. And that’s an important facet or even lynchpin of civilisation, and everyone getting along together. If you take away the potential for physical consequences, you destroy society,”

or something like that. I haven’t really thought about how or why a leads to b, whether he has a point or is right or not.

 

[Joe]

I don’t think it’s that. He was a therapist for a long time, after all.

Well he certainly had a strong negative response (in the form of immediate blocking) of people (me included) who challenged him on his "let them have it Bibi". So I don't think his tolerance for direct negative feedback (perhaps especially from "people on the internet") is very high, years of therapist practice or not.