I've heard that Peterson was spreading worthless claptrap, but am still a little suprised.
> If Google is still mostly focused on writing software and building the future, rather than prosecuting culture wars
Thankfully, Google has stayed away from Peterson
If by 'other words' you mean, someone else's words. Eliminating harassment/discrimination is common sense for a company, ethically and for liability sake; he's not advocating against that.
But if you're a shareholder or investor in a software company, that suddenly diverts funds and resources to fight social causes (outside the scope of your mission statement), you have every right to have concern or be critical.
That's not the implication. He was speaking about the Damore issue, wherein the Google HR department focused on mandating equity.
> The more I learn about this guy, the more of a scum bag he appears.
Most everyone who criticizes him takes a bad faith approach and draws their own conclusions. This is typical. eg /r/enoughpetersonspam for endless interpretations of phrases as philosophical statements
COWEN: If we turn to senior management of large American companies, as a class of people — and I know it’s hard to generalize — but what do you see them as just not getting?
PETERSON: I would caution them not to underestimate the danger of their human resources departments.
COWEN: Say more.
PETERSON: Yeah, well, because I see that the social justice etiology that’s destroyed a huge swath of academia is on the march in a major way through corporate America. And if the corporate people think they’re immune to it, they’ve got another think coming. It’s not like they’re any smarter than the universities.
COWEN: And who gave the HR department so much power? How did that happen? What myth did we follow that led us wrong?
PETERSON: That’s a good question because they had virtually no power to begin with, right? HR departments have always been underpowered, so to speak.
If Google is still mostly focused on writing software and building the future, rather than prosecuting culture wars, that strikes me as a slight but real positive sign.