I became aware of Peterson when one of my students brought him up. He'd run across his stuff on YouTube, and we were talking about interviews as a text type, and so it was topically relevant. The student was positive about the stuff he'd seen - which from what I'd gathered was his more innocuous "guide to living" stuff - the stuff for which he is usually accused of banality.

So, we watched some interview clips together, from the "infamous" Newman interview to a debate with a Canadian professor about transgender pronouns. The thing about Peterson that's interesting is just how much mileage he gets out of implication, at least in his most public performances. It's so, so easy for him to very accurately play the, "I didn't say that" game when challenged on a particularly objectionable statement, when it's entirely obvious how and why certain audiences of his would have taken exactly that objectionable meaning away from it.

Oh, and there was a clip of him angrily shouting to an angry group of his supporters at a protest, and he was a pretty scary dude.

I will always remember his bafflement and dismissive disgust when confronted the idea that maybe he shoudl just try being kind to people. It's not that simple, he replied, you can't just be kind. Principles are at stake, he claimed, baffled that anyone would even dare to put kindness and respect on the same level with his right to, theoretically, if he wanted to, use pronouns to misgender individuals of the trans community. Of course, the issue at stake had nothign to do with legally requiring him to use zer or whatever, but about the ability of trans individuals to use such pronouns on their registration forms.

I'm rambling, I know, but whatever. I have no desire to delve into the hateful and confused swamp of his mind long enough to develop my arguments more precisely. My will to live is far to weak for such self-inflicted wounds.