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Jordan Peterson: The fatal flaw in leftist American politics | Big Think

Big Think | August 14, 2025



Jordan Peterson: The fatal flaw in leftist American politics
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What is political extremism? Professor of psychology Jordan Peterson points out that America knows what right-wing radicalism looks like: white nationalism. “What’s interesting is that on the conservative side of the spectrum, we’ve figured out how to box-in the radicals and say, ‘No, you’re outside the domain of acceptable opinion,'” says Peterson. But where’s that line for the Left? There is no universal marker of what extreme liberalism looks like, which is devastating to the ideology itself but also to political discourse as a whole. Peterson is happy to suggest such a marker: “The doctrine of equality of outcome. It seems to me that that’s where people who are thoughtful on the Left should draw the line, and say no. Equality of opportunity? [That’s] not only fair enough, but laudable. But equality of outcome…? It’s like: ‘No, you’ve crossed the line. We’re not going there with you.'”Peterson argues that it’s the ethical responsibility of left-leaning people to identify liberal extremism and distinguish themselves from it the same way conservatives distance themselves from the doctrine of racial superiority. Failing to recognize such extremism may be liberalism’s fatal flaw.
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JORDAN PETERSON

Jordan B. Peterson, raised and toughened in the frigid wastelands of Northern Alberta, has flown a hammer-head roll in a carbon-fiber stunt-plane, explored an Arizona meteorite crater with astronauts, and built a Kwagu’l ceremonial bighouse on the upper floor of his Toronto home after being invited into and named by that Canadian First Nation. He’s taught mythology to lawyers, doctors and business people, consulted for the UN Secretary General, helped his clinical clients manage depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, and schizophrenia, served as an adviser to senior partners of major Canadian law firms, and lectured extensively in North America and Europe. With his students and colleagues at Harvard and the University of Toronto, Dr. Peterson has published over a hundred scientific papers, transforming the modern understanding of personality, while his book Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief revolutionized the psychology of religion. His latest book is 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos.
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TRANSCRIPT:

JORDAN PETERSON: I would like to talk briefly about depolarization on the Left and the Right, because I think there’s a technical problem that needs to be addressed. So here’s what I’ve been thinking about.

It’s been obvious to me for some time that, for some reason, the fundamental claim of post-modernism is something like an infinite number of interpretations and no canonical overarching narrative. Okay, but the problem with that is: okay, now what?

No narrative, no value structure that is canonically overarching, so what the hell are you going to do with yourself? How are you going to orient yourself in the world? Well, the post-modernists have no answer to that. So what happens is they default—without any real attempt to grapple with the cognitive dissonance—they default to this kind of loose, egalitarian Marxism. And if they were concerned with coherence that would be a problem, but since they’re not concerned with coherence it doesn’t seem to be a problem.

But the force that’s driving the activism is mostly the Marxism rather than the post-modernism. It’s more like an intellectual gloss to hide the fact that a discredited economic theory is being used to fuel an educational movement and to produce activists. But there’s no coherence to it.

It’s not like I’m making this up, you know. Derrida himself regarded—and Foucault as well—they were barely repentant Marxists. They were part of the student revolutions in France in the 1960s, and what happened to them, essentially—and what happened to Jean-Paul Sartre for that matter—was that by the end of the 1960s you couldn’t be conscious and thinking and pro-Marxist. There’s so much evidence that had come pouring in from the former Soviet Union, from the Soviet Union at that point, and from Maoist China, of the absolutely devastating consequences of the doctrine that it was impossible to be apologetic for it by that point in time.

So the French intellectuals in particular just pulled off a sleight of hand and transformed Marxism into post-modern identity politics. And we’ve seen the consequence of that. It’s not good. It’s a devolution into a kind of tribalism …

For the full transcript, check out https://bigthink.com/videos/top-10-jordan-peterson-leftist-liberal-politics

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Comments

This post currently has 44 comments.

  4. @fredfred3195

    August 14, 2025 at 8:30 pm

    Not surprised another talking head thinking he knows best. Calling someone with conservative values a Facist is easy and lazy. With all of your comments here, equally easy to say the same and call liberals Totalitarian. Boring.

  5. @danguee1

    August 14, 2025 at 8:30 pm

    The fatal flaw in Leftist American politics is: identity politics IS EVIL. It's regressive – how've we let them steal the word "progressive"? – divisive/tribal, cause hatred and resentment. And open borders and Islamophilia are both disasters… There – saved you 10 minutes

  7. @seanwebb605

    August 14, 2025 at 8:30 pm

    This guy started out with a legitimate position and a real concern. He had expertise in the field understanding compelled though and language. But somewhere he went off the deep end. His interview with Sam Harris exposed some bizarre ideas. Let's remember that he is currently licensed as a clinical psychologist. I don't know why he leaned into being the spokesperson for so many far right positions. Previously he hadn't championed these causes.

  8. @danyvarna5094

    August 14, 2025 at 8:30 pm

    Incoherent people like him and the general dumbing down of the right is why I left it. Currently we are choosing between semi-competent, emotional, globalist liars that work for the interest of a transnational elite and incompetent, emotional, incoherent, lying malcontents that work for expansionist foreign governments.

  12. @houlinfan4140

    August 14, 2025 at 8:30 pm

    The far left and communist believe they can build something better so they seek to destroy the past while the fascist and far right draws their strength from their culture’s traditions. The far left is much more scary and destructive than the far right, hitler stole art all over Europe for his own enjoyment but mao and Stalin destroyed their own cultures artistic heritage to further their own political agenda

  13. @lordoflordzreydereyez1484

    August 14, 2025 at 8:30 pm

    Jesus makes this clear our soul Father's Love is the same for all of us what differentiates us is how deep are love is for our neighbor. What credit is it of yours if you love the people that love you a true disciple of Jesus loves his enemies. Love your enemies well enough deep enough and you will not actually have any enemies anymore or that has been our experience

  15. @yorocco1

    August 14, 2025 at 8:30 pm

    HOW TF is this nut job on Big Think!!??? He’s batshit crazy! Oh, it’s not the actual Big Think. Phew! I was worried for a minute. Jordan Peterson has a screw loose. If he’s not blubbering he’s raging about some crazy idea. No thanks.

  19. @a_1081p

    August 14, 2025 at 8:30 pm

    Doesn't bigthink strive for legitimacy? Why interview a quack like Peterson? Should probably add a disclaimer about how people who study leftist politics don't take him seriously.

  30. @bz6122

    August 14, 2025 at 8:30 pm

    Save America from progressive left.
    America for the real Americans . patriotic member of good old America only.
    Make America great again and again and again.
    In God we Trump.
    Sorry, TRUST.
    Back to the 40s..

  31. @82saw3

    August 14, 2025 at 8:30 pm

    I remember reading something a long time ago, written by Winston Churchill about fascism, and how the only way to deal with it is the same way you deal with stubborn weeds in a garden. The topsoil needs to be removed and the ground must be turned into mud, the weeds must be ripped out and burned. It’s a horrible thing to see what decent people have to become to deal with something as dangerous as fascism. The death toll is always catastrophic, and it leaves behind survivors who are dead inside.

  32. @Tom-the-Necromancer

    August 14, 2025 at 8:30 pm

    The fatal flaw is that the right attacked the public with psychotropic chemical weapons to neutralize them into behavioural goldfish so they would be more susceptible to psychological programming to be pacified to political circumstances that would otherwise cause massive scale violent revolt.

  34. @rdshep4873

    August 14, 2025 at 8:30 pm

    Its crazy that some people never question their own politics or challange themselves with thinking things like why doesnt cnn and fox news invite other parties to the debates….

  35. @LordByron38

    August 14, 2025 at 8:30 pm

    william buckley actually supported segregation in 1960s …he changed opinions but only after years.And majority of leftifts have ,,some "limits even if you can consider those limits not enough strong.great majority of leftists disagree with one party state ,stalinism or often even with any kind of leninism.

  37. @JonathanStevey

    August 14, 2025 at 8:30 pm

    Only one major flaws in Peterson's analysis. Fascism is left wing not right wing.

    Fascism is a form of socialism and therefore left wing. And before you say the Fascists can't be socialists because they killed commies…Socialists killing other socialists doesn't make them not socialists. Fascism is a form of national syndicalism. The ideology is an offshoot of Sorelianism (national syndicalism)…which was named after George Sorel…a syndicalist that believed in traditionalist values and was against the idea of the bourgeois democracy. Sorelianism and marxism share a central ideology…Hegelianism. Mussolini also credited Hubert Lagardelle, another French revolutionary syndicalist, for influencing The genesis of Fascism. (Sheldon Richman, “Fascism,”) Now that we have that out if the way. The only difference between fascism and communism is nationalism vs globalism. And not really even that as once you have a global government, you have one global nation. Hitler went after the commies because they reported to Moscow…as a nationalist he couldn't have that as he wanted all socialists to report to Berlin.

    There is this book called the "Doctrine of Fascism" written by Benito Mussolini and Giovanni Gentile. An exert from this book:

    "Anti-individualistic, the Fascist conception of life stresses the importance of the State and accepts the individual only in so far as his interests coincide with those of the State, which stands for the conscience and the universal, will of man as a historic entity. It is opposed to classical liberalism which arose as a reaction to absolutism and exhausted its historical function when the State became the expression of the conscience and will of the people. Liberalism denied the State in the name of the individual; Fascism reasserts the rights of the State as expressing the real essence of the individual. And if liberty is to he the attribute of living men and not of abstract dummies invented by individualistic liberalism, then Fascism stands for liberty, and for the only liberty worth having, the liberty of the State and of the individual within the State. The Fascist conception of the State is all embracing; outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist, much less have value. Thus understood, Fascism, is totalitarian, and the Fascist State — a synthesis and a unit inclusive of all values —
    interprets, develops, and potentates the whole life of a people. No individutals or groups (political parties, cultural associations, economic unions, social classes) outside the State."

    Gentile also explained "It is necessary to distinguish between socialism and socialism—in fact, between idea and idea of the same socialist conception, in order to distinguish among them those that are inimical to Fascism. It is well known that Sorellian syndicalism, out of which the thought and the political method of Fascism emerged—conceived itself the genuine interpretation of Marxist communism. The dynamic conception of history, in which force as violence functions as an essential, is of unquestioned Marxist origin. Those notions flowed into other currents of contemporary thought, that have themselves, via alternative routes, arrived at a vindication of the form of State—implacable, but absolutely rational—that finds historic necessity in the very spiritual dynamism through which it realizes itself.“ —  Che cosa è il fascismo: Discorsi e polemiche (“What is Fascism?”), Florence: Vallecchi, (1925) pp. 42-45, 47-48, 49-51, 56,Origins and Doctrine of Fascism, A. James Gregor, translator and editor, Transaction Publishers, 2003, p. 59

    Then you have the analysis by A. James Gregor, an American political scientist…"Fascism itself was a variant of Sorelian syndicalism which advertized itself as voluntaristic, neo-idealist and elitist socialism. This current of socialist thought neither Fascism nor Gentile ever rejected. ‘Fascism,’ Gentile insisted, ‘as a consequence of its Marxian and Sorelian patrimony… conjoined with the influence of contemporary Italian idealism, through which Fascist thought attained maturity, conceives philosophy as praxis.“

    Source: The Ideology of Fascism: The Rationale of Totalitarianism, (1969), p. 317

    Also…"As have been indicated, many Fascist theoreticians, throughout their active political lives, acknowledged the affinities between Fascism and Marxist-Leninism. There were even Italian Marxist-Leninists–including Nicola Bombacci, one of the founders of his nation's Communist Party–who conceived of Fascism as the only viable form of Marxism for economically retrograde communities.“

    Source: The Faces of Janus: Marxism and Fascism in the Twentieth Century, (2000), p. 168
    "Fascism presented itself not only as an alternative, but also as the heir to socialism."- Jacob Talmon Polish-born Israeli historian; Professor of Modern History; studied Cold War and totalitarianism; anti-Marxist 1916–1980

    Source: The Myth of the Nation and the Vision of Revolution: The Origins of Ideological Polarization in the 20th Century, (1981), p. 501

    Yes fascism is a form of socialism and therefore a ledt wing ideology.

  39. @WhiteArrow76

    August 14, 2025 at 8:30 pm

    I'm a freelance social scientist, as well as a millennial. I know unregulated capitalism has its risks, but Marxism poses a MUCH greater risk to a modern society simply because it calls for policies no society can bear the strain of.

    With people of my generation and younger who support Socialism, I can see a LOT of red flags indicating the presence of a form of collective narcissism.

    Due to the combined effects of the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic, housing, education and healthcare are now ridiculously expensive, so its understandable that younger generation favor policies which provides these for free or at affordable prices. The flaw of this thought process is they're seemingly oblivious to the potential consequences of these lofty ideals

  40. @danieltenebrion9413

    August 14, 2025 at 8:30 pm

    Equality is mostly a social problem, not as much a structural problem, though there are people working in the structure that have religious ideologies, racist agendas and sexist bias that motivate dangerous policies motivated by hate. But the facts are that the only side that motivates inequality against individuality, bullying and murder in society is the far right and far right conspiracists, however. Mosque shootings, school shootings, beatings and murder of american asians, deaths of pregnant women due to anti-abortion policies, bullying/murder and suicide rates among trans and intersex people, and the list goes on. The right has become consumed by hate against anyone that does not conform to religion and looking normal. It has become a party for the uneducated and ignorant that the rich monopolize off of, which is why most rich people are republican. My only point is: If you're on the side that all of the con artists, racists, sexists and neo nazis go.. then you're probably on the wrong side.

    Infact the worst of it is that rightwing people think that trans and LGBTQ people are synonymous with pedophiles, whereas in the real world pedophiles are far more likely to be predisposed as republican christians. Because narcissist groomers/abusers want to hide the abuse and control that they impose both on their victims and their own families from the public eye, so that they never get caught. So essentially, the far right is also both protecting pedophiles and directing further abuse to their victims, as most of these abused people do end up either taking the side of extreme left ideology or even end up members of the LGBTQ community due to gender related traumas.

  41. @ks-mh2gi

    August 14, 2025 at 8:30 pm

    Well, that didn't age well in 2023. The right has crossed way over the line as defined by Buckley. Simplify this whole video, with another historical reference: Any position to the extreme left or the extreme right of any political question, is always wrong. – Dwight Eisenhower. The problem with the right, at this point in our history, is that they have moved so much further than the left. Populist, fascist branded authoritarianism is not the path we should be on. Repression, persecution and death is what that leads to. And if you support that, remember your support, when they come for you and your family. Because they will.

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