Canadian psychologist and Internet lightning rod Jordan Peterson, who has been at the fore of opposition to preferred pronoun compulsion, has been threatened with suspension of his license to practice his profession.
“Mechanisms originally put in place to protect and benefit the public are being turned into tools of coercion and mandatory compliance. The usual norms, the unwritten daily rules that we consider 'politeness' and social behavior, are being overlaid with a totalitarian "do it our way or lose everything" duress. Power, once granted to the government, will almost inevitably be used in a way other than originally intended. That America has a First Amendment, and that courts (so far) have been enforcing it, is the only thing standing between us and such as is being attempted in Canada and elsewhere regarding things like preferred pronouns. That we have to rely on the courts, which should be a last resort and final backstop rather than the sole protector of our rights, tells us how little our politicians esteem their oaths of office.“
Great piece, Peter. I am fighting against the impact of the social reengineering of a generation steeped in this nonsense. My grandchildren are being bombarded with woke and, since I'm a "clueless boomer", what I say or do that is deemed non-compliant with the narrative is met with anger and dismissiveness. Reason and discussion have no place in the public and private educational institutions my grandkids are attending. It's just parrot the dogma or suffer the consequences for these kids. I'm still fighting the good fight but not getting much progress.
Between this woke indoctrination and the harm from lockdowns and forever masking, the nation's "Best and Brightest" are destroying two generations of Americans.
Before I even completed the article I was so tickled by the list of "professions" requiring licensure that I had to go with this: "I want rustlers, cut throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers and Methodists."
Pumping gas requires a license now? As a 12 year old growing up in Miami, my father owned a Texaco gas station, which meant that I had a job whether I wanted it or not. My brother and I dutifully worked pumping gas, checking oil and washing windshields after school and on weekends, with zero wages. It was a family business, so you did what you had to do. Caveat: I had access to the soda machine key, so I could nab a grape or orange bottled soda whenever I needed one, with permission of course. I have fond memories of changing from my oversized Texaco uniform into my football uniform to walk about a mile to practice and games, only to return and swap back into my Texaco garb and go back to pumping that petrol. I say fond now, but trust me I was not fond of doing that back then.
As for Peterson, I was randomly introduced to him by an Uber driver. I was having my car repaired and caught an Uber back home. The driver was a nice young man, but he was playing some music I didn't particularly care for. Along the way he changed it to a Peterson podcast, and I really liked it. He seemed to have some things to say that were thought-provoking. I was really surprised that this young driver, who I had already stereotyped, was into this kind of discussion. I learned a lesson that day about making assumptions, and I appreciated the guy for turning me on to someone I might not have otherwise discovered. I made sure to tell him that.
I don't agree with Peterson on everything (it should be very rare that *anyone* is in 100% agreement with some public figure), but I've watched and read enough of his stuff to realize that he has grossly caricaturized and misrepresented by the usual suspects. All that is also a big tell in that their biggest outrages are in his field of expertise, i.e. evolutionary psychology, and in particular the hard-wired differences between men and women.
The existence of such wiring runs in total conflict with the trans-activist notion that gender is just a construct, unrelated to our chromosomes. This is an irreconcilable difference, but since Peterson has science on his side, it's not just disparate worldviews. That makes him "dangerous" and therefore one to be destroyed rather than rebutted.
“Mechanisms originally put in place to protect and benefit the public are being turned into tools of coercion and mandatory compliance. The usual norms, the unwritten daily rules that we consider 'politeness' and social behavior, are being overlaid with a totalitarian "do it our way or lose everything" duress. Power, once granted to the government, will almost inevitably be used in a way other than originally intended. That America has a First Amendment, and that courts (so far) have been enforcing it, is the only thing standing between us and such as is being attempted in Canada and elsewhere regarding things like preferred pronouns. That we have to rely on the courts, which should be a last resort and final backstop rather than the sole protector of our rights, tells us how little our politicians esteem their oaths of office.“
Great piece, Peter. I am fighting against the impact of the social reengineering of a generation steeped in this nonsense. My grandchildren are being bombarded with woke and, since I'm a "clueless boomer", what I say or do that is deemed non-compliant with the narrative is met with anger and dismissiveness. Reason and discussion have no place in the public and private educational institutions my grandkids are attending. It's just parrot the dogma or suffer the consequences for these kids. I'm still fighting the good fight but not getting much progress.
Between this woke indoctrination and the harm from lockdowns and forever masking, the nation's "Best and Brightest" are destroying two generations of Americans.
Before I even completed the article I was so tickled by the list of "professions" requiring licensure that I had to go with this: "I want rustlers, cut throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers and Methodists."
Those [redacted] Methodists!!!
Powerful and spot-on! Great piece!
Spot on and well articulated, Peter, thank you!
So sadly & infuriatingly true on every point!
Pumping gas requires a license now? As a 12 year old growing up in Miami, my father owned a Texaco gas station, which meant that I had a job whether I wanted it or not. My brother and I dutifully worked pumping gas, checking oil and washing windshields after school and on weekends, with zero wages. It was a family business, so you did what you had to do. Caveat: I had access to the soda machine key, so I could nab a grape or orange bottled soda whenever I needed one, with permission of course. I have fond memories of changing from my oversized Texaco uniform into my football uniform to walk about a mile to practice and games, only to return and swap back into my Texaco garb and go back to pumping that petrol. I say fond now, but trust me I was not fond of doing that back then.
As for Peterson, I was randomly introduced to him by an Uber driver. I was having my car repaired and caught an Uber back home. The driver was a nice young man, but he was playing some music I didn't particularly care for. Along the way he changed it to a Peterson podcast, and I really liked it. He seemed to have some things to say that were thought-provoking. I was really surprised that this young driver, who I had already stereotyped, was into this kind of discussion. I learned a lesson that day about making assumptions, and I appreciated the guy for turning me on to someone I might not have otherwise discovered. I made sure to tell him that.
I don't agree with Peterson on everything (it should be very rare that *anyone* is in 100% agreement with some public figure), but I've watched and read enough of his stuff to realize that he has grossly caricaturized and misrepresented by the usual suspects. All that is also a big tell in that their biggest outrages are in his field of expertise, i.e. evolutionary psychology, and in particular the hard-wired differences between men and women.
The existence of such wiring runs in total conflict with the trans-activist notion that gender is just a construct, unrelated to our chromosomes. This is an irreconcilable difference, but since Peterson has science on his side, it's not just disparate worldviews. That makes him "dangerous" and therefore one to be destroyed rather than rebutted.