I really admire Rob for his blog, life experience, and some truely unique and powerful perspectives.
This type of culture war bait is a little lame though. Its even more lame that he isnt welcome in certain bookstores for some reason. His book is still going to sell great and its those bookstores loss for not seeing his value.
Also: do we know if he tried to present at other, not so politicised or ideologically-driven bookstores? I'm sure there's some. Feels like he's somewhat cherry picking to market his own book with some good old controversy marketing.
Re:
by kiba on Monday January 15, 2024 @09:32AM
(#39001366)
If you grow up poor and aren’t willing to pledge fealty to the right causes, these places don’t want you. If you grew up poor, remake your fortunes, and then speak truthfully about the factors that fuel success (hard work, determination, sacrifice) rather than the factors elites speak about (luck, systemic forces, privilege), then these places don’t want you.
To pretend that luck, systemic forces, and privileges has nothing to do with your success (or weighing against your success) is frankly incorrect.
To be sure, they aren't totally determinate. No single factor is going to make you a success or a 'failure'. As a youtuber put it and I paraphrased, "all you can do is play the best god damn game you can". If you win, you win. If you lose, at the very least you tried your best.
Luck and connections matter a lot. Ivy League schools are so competitive for this reason, for those invaluable connections and opportunities they open.
Re:
by kiba on Monday January 15, 2024 @09:43AM
(#39001510)
Frankly, elites who said that luck and connection are opportunities are just saying the truth. Otherwise, the elite would just say hard work and personal effort every time to perpetuate a false narrative. That's just not how the world work.
Given 100% of my exposure to this person is from reading this blog post just now, I'm not sure I'd invite him to my bookshop either. Luckily this is immaterial, because I don't have a bookshop.
I'm sorry, but yes, Jordan Peterson is a person that has decided to make himself toxic and part of a polarizing marketing narrative to sell more books, get more high-paying speaking gigs, and in general brand himself in a very specific, controversial way.
While I believe that the kind of "extreme wokeness" of a small part of close-minded US "liberals" and Academia is detrimental to the democratic discourse, I also believe that Jordan Peterson has been repeatedly playing with fire, and demonstrated toxic traits that invalidate his own Academic work.
Refusing exposure to someone who embraces by proxy that narrative is perfectly fine for commercial establishments that need to target a specific demographic. He's just not in target. He should be fine with that, considering that's how their beloved capitalism and free market work.
This reads a bit as if Judith Butler would complain that nobody's inviting her to talk about her feminist memoir in LDS bookstores in Utah.
This type of culture war bait is a little lame though. Its even more lame that he isnt welcome in certain bookstores for some reason. His book is still going to sell great and its those bookstores loss for not seeing his value.
To pretend that luck, systemic forces, and privileges has nothing to do with your success (or weighing against your success) is frankly incorrect.
To be sure, they aren't totally determinate. No single factor is going to make you a success or a 'failure'. As a youtuber put it and I paraphrased, "all you can do is play the best god damn game you can". If you win, you win. If you lose, at the very least you tried your best.
While I believe that the kind of "extreme wokeness" of a small part of close-minded US "liberals" and Academia is detrimental to the democratic discourse, I also believe that Jordan Peterson has been repeatedly playing with fire, and demonstrated toxic traits that invalidate his own Academic work.
Refusing exposure to someone who embraces by proxy that narrative is perfectly fine for commercial establishments that need to target a specific demographic. He's just not in target. He should be fine with that, considering that's how their beloved capitalism and free market work.
This reads a bit as if Judith Butler would complain that nobody's inviting her to talk about her feminist memoir in LDS bookstores in Utah.