About

Jordan Peterson is a Canadian clinical psychologist and professor at the University of Toronto, who has gained a significant following and criticism online for challenging postmodernism, political correctness and identity politics.

Career

In the mid-1990s, Peterson taught and conducted research at the Harvard University psychology department, where he studied drug and alcohol abuse-related aggression. In 1998, Peterson was appointed a full professor at the University of Toronto, where he went on to author and co-author upwards of 100 academic papers on a variety of subjects related to the field of psychology. In 1999, Routledge published Peterson's book Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief, which discusses the use of symbols in human culture, the relationship between religion and science, and discusses neuropsychological research regarding ritual, myths and religious stories.

Online History

YouTube Channel

On March 30th, 2013, Peterson uploaded his first video to YouTube titled "Jordan Peterson: What Matters" (shown below). On April 24th, Peterson began uploading select university lectures to the channel.

On August 9th, 2017, Peterson uploaded an interview with software engineer James Damore, during which they discussed his controversial Google memo (shown below, left). On October 2nd, Peterson uploaded a video in which he discusses postmodernism with professor Camille Paglia (shown below, right). As of January 2018, Peterson's YouTube channel has accumulated upwards of 600,000 subscribers.

Bill C-16 Opposition

On September 27th, 2016, Peterson uploaded a lecture titled "Professor against political correctness: Part I," in which he announced he would not be using the preferred gender pronouns of students and faculty in response to Canada's Bill C-16, which added "gender expression and identity" to the Canadian Human Rights Act list of protected grounds. In the video, Peterson argues that the bill presents a potential threat to free speech, claiming that those who refused to use preferred pronouns could be prosecuted under the law.

Peterson's opposition to the bill was subsequently criticized by various activist groups, leading to protests against him on campus. On October 20th, the 1791L channel uploaded footage of Peterson arguing with students on campus, which received upwards of 3.1 million views and 46,000 comments over the next three years (shown below).

Podcast Appearances

On November 28th, 2016, Peterson appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Within two years, a YouTube upload of the episode received upwards of 2.6 million views and 15,500 comments (shown below).

On May 9th, 2017, Peterson appeared on the podcast a second time (shown below, left). On September 1st, Peterson appeared on the podcast with evolutionary biologist Bret Weinstein (shown below, right).

On November 3rd, Peterson appeared on an episode of the H3 Podcast, where he was interviewed by hosts Hila and Ethan Klein (shown below). Over the next two months, the video garnered upwards of 1.75 million views and 10,700 comments.

Laurier University Censorship Controversy

On November 1st, 2017, Laurier University graduate student Lindsay Shepherd taught a tutorial class on language during which she presented a debate from the show The Agenda broadcast on the Canadian public education television channel TVOntario between Peterson and Nicholas Matte over the use of gendered pronouns. Following Shepherd’s tutorial class, she was contacted to meet with her supervising professor Nathan Rambukkana, associate professor in communication studies Herbert Pimlott and manager of gendered violence prevention and support Adria Joel. After the audio of the meeting was leaked online, an enormous backlash erupted online in response to the way Shepherd was treated.

Channel 4 News Interview

On January 16th, 2018, the Channel 4 News YouTube channel released an interview with Peterson titled "Jordan Peterson debate on the gender pay gap, campus protests and postmodernism," in which Peterson debates Channel 4 News host Cathy Newman (shown below). Within 72 hours, the video gained over 1.6 million views and 37,800 comments. The following day, the news site Quilette^[3] published an article about the appearance.

On January 19th, The Guardian published reported that Channel 4 consulted "security experts" following "vicious misogynistic abuse" following the interview. That day, Peterson tweeted a link to the article, calling for those threatening Newman to "stop" (shown below).

On January 20th, Twitter^[4] user Eric Weinstein tweeted an infographic depicting the Channel 4 interview as a "worked example" of his "four-quadrant model" (shown below). Within 48 hours, the tweet garnered upwards of 2,000 likes and 640 retweets. On January 21st, The Independent^[5] published an article titled ''Misogynistic abuse against Cathy Newman is a symbol of the backlash against the MeToo movement,'' reporting that Newman was the target of a harassment campaign following the release of the interview.

Image Macros

On January 21st, a thread was submitted to the /pol/^[6] board on 4chan featuring various image macros mocking Newman's questioning during the interview, many of which contained the caption "So you're saying…" (shown below).

Clean Your Room

One of Peterson's central tenets is that men should “set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world,” often simplified to "clean your room" (shown below).

Online, this is often parodied as a simplistic point made by Peterson that has caught on with his followers. Online, it's mocked in remix videos and image macros. For example, a video by Fun Editor pairing Peterson talking about the topic with footage of Kermit the Frog gained over 164,000 views (shown below, left). An image showing a gamer refusing to clean his room when his mother tells him but agreeing to when Peterson tells him appeared on Reddit in October of 2017 (shown below, right).

On July 3rd, 2018^[7], an image of Peterson delivering a stream in a cluttered room began attracting mockery on Twitter (shown below).

The image spread as Peterson's critics mocked it for going against one of his most famous principles. User @onxln tweeted a joke about the image that gained over 100 retweets and 1,000 likes (shown below, left). The account for the publication Current Affairs mocked the image as well, gaining over 220 retweets and 1,700 likes (shown below, right). The jokes were covered by The Daily Dot.^[8]

Kermit the Frog Comparisons

On YouTube, Peterson is often parodied in remix videos pairing audio from his talks with footage of Kermit the Frog from The Muppets, as the two share a similar speaking voice. The most popular of these videos features Peterson as Kermit talking about his "Clean Your Room" philosophy. The video was posted by Fun Editor on June 25th, 2017, gaining over 171,000 views (shown below, left). Another popular variation, posted by Jolly Jester on July 19th, 2017, paired audio of Peterson with a video of Kermit talking with Stephen Colbert, gaining over 70,000 views (shown below, right)

Žižek Debate

On February 28th, 2019, Peterson uploaded a video titled "Zizek vs Peterson: April 19," in which he announced he would be debating Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek on April 19th, 2019 at the Sony Central in Ontario, Canada over the topic "happiness: Marxism vs. capitalism" (shown below).

That day, Redditor Big_Red_Machine_1917 submitted a Steamed Hams comic mocking the debate to /r/ChapoTrapHouse^[9] (shown below). Meanwhile, a picture of Kermit the Frog talking to Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street was submitted to /r/enoughpetersonspam^[10] (shown below, right).

Jordan Peterson Skrillex Photo

On February 4th, 2022, Jordan Peterson posed with dubstep artist Skrillex in a photograph that Peterson posted to Twitter^[11] captioned, "Guess who." The tweet (shown below) earned roughly 27,100 likes in less than 24 hours. The photographs followed a pre-cursor tweet^[12] from Peterson that read, "Good to see you yesterday @Skrillex," tagging Skrillex and receiving roughly 7,200 likes in less than 24 hours.

Male-Milking Controversy / Chinese Sperm Factory Milking Tweet

On March 11th, 2023, Peterson quote-tweeted (from his recently reinstated account following Elon Musk acquiring Twitter) a video from a conspiracy theory account purporting to show a male-milking laboratory in China (seen below). There is no evidence for "male milking" or such a lab existing in the People's Republic of China, and online, users rapidly identified the video Peterson shared as an extract of a British pornographic fetish film. Peterson deleted the tweet in question shortly after posting it, but others screenshotted and saved the tweet, including a reply by his daughter Mikhaila telling him not to tweet such things.

The adult film, as posters noted, was produced in the southwest of England by a "techno-sexual gadget girl" dominatrix.^[14] The highly NSFW post shocked and surprised many, including Twitter user @Win98Tech (seen below) who received almost 10,000 likes for tweeting a George Bush Learning About 9/11 meme describing the situation.^[13]

Many posted memes about the ridiculousness of Peterson's tweet, such as Twitter user @KyleTrainEmoji, who made a Goatse joke on March 12th and received almost 5,500 likes in less than 24 hours (seen below, top).^[16] Others, like user @robrousseau, pointed out that Peterson had exposed many of his underage followers to graphic pornography through the quote tweet, questioning his judgment and moral character, and receiving almost 12,000 likes in a similar timeframe (seen below, bottom).^[17]

The original video came from the Chinese conspiracist account @songpinganq (shown below), which also posted prolifically about 15-Minute Cities and anti-vax content. @songpinganq is also notably followed by the official account of Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey, as of March 2023.^[15]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References