Marvel fans are well-familiar with Captain America’s nemesis, Red Skull, a man too evil for Adolf Hitler. Seriously, Red Skull sets up the evil organization Hydra to go where Hitler would not, and only Captain America can stop him. In the latest version of the comics, written by none other than Ta-Nehisi Coates, Red Skull draws inspiration from none other than Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson.
Peterson responded with understandable alarm.
“What the hell?” the psychologist tweeted after a Twitter user led him to a comic strip in which Red Skull appears in a YouTube video with the captions “Ten Rules for Life,” “Chaos and Order,” “Karl Lueger’s Genius,” and “The Feminist Trap.”
What the hell? https://t.co/CGkuztpEjq
— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) April 6, 2021
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The “Ten Rules for Life” appears to be a reference to 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos. Peterson’s philosophy emphasizes order, which he identifies with the masculine archetype, over chaos, which he identifies with the feminine archetype, but that does not make his philosophy anti-woman, as some have claimed. Peterson’s book emphasizes competence — not maleness or femaleness — as the standard by which power and influence should be attained. Peterson does warn against modern feminism, however.
The caption, “Karl Lueger’s Genius” references the controversial Austrian politician Karl Lueger, who helped modernize Vienna but who also spread vicious anti-Semitism that some say inspired Hitler. This does not seem to be connected with Peterson.
“Do I really live in a universe where Ta-Nehisi Coates has written a Captain America comic featuring a parody of my ideas as part of the philosophy of the arch villain Red Skull?” Peterson asked.
He shared another comic strip in which Captain America says “weak” “young men” are looking for the purpose Captain America found in “the flag” and some find it in “the skull.”
“He tells them what they’ve always long to hear, that they are secretly great. That the whole world is against them. That if they’re truly men, they’ll fight back. And bingo — that’s their purpose. That’s what they live for. And that’s what they’ll die for,” Captain America continues.
Do I really live in a universe where Ta-Nehisi Coates has written a Captain America comic featuring a parody of my ideas as part of the philosophy of the arch villain Red Skull? https://t.co/waFsAvWlfd
— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) April 6, 2021
These images come from Captain America #28, a Marvel comic published on March 31, 2021, written by Ta-Nehisi Coates and illustrated by Leonard Kirk.
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Peterson has developed a following among young men who seek direction in life. The psychologist attempts to convince men to take responsibility, grow up, and become men. His message emphasizes that life involves suffering and that only through taking responsibility can men find the necessary tools to handle that suffering.
Peterson opposes some leftist agenda items, especially laws forcing people to refer to transgender people by their preferred pronouns (which Peterson rightly considers a threat to free speech). Ta-Nehisi Coates appears to have demonized Peterson’s politics by connecting him to something worse than fascism — a villain worse than Hitler.
Anyone interested in investigating the truth of this accusation can just read 12 Rules for Life and see for himself to determine whether Jordan Peterson is an evil Nazi.
Ben Shapiro eviscerated the attack and mocked it at the same time.
“The fact that Ta-Nehisi Coates was trying to come up with the most evil supervillain he could and the best he could do is a Canadian psychologist who writes about Jungian analysis and encourages young men to make their beds is pretty telling,” Shapiro tweeted. “In our upside-down world, Captain America goes around telling Americans that their country is irredeemably racist and that systemic discrimination is necessary to rectify past injustices.”
In our upside-down world, Captain America goes around telling Americans that their country is irredeemably racist and that systemic discrimination is necessary to rectify past injustices.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) April 6, 2021
Indeed, Coates pushes far-Left racial politics that seems to trace back to Marxist critical race theory. This ideology inspired much of the destruction of the Black Lives Matter and antifa riots over the summer. While protesters rightly expressed outrage at the treatment of George Floyd, many of the protests devolved into looting, vandalism, and arson in which lawless thugs — acting in the name of fighting racism — destroyed black lives, black livelihoods, and black monuments.
Is it too much to ask Marvel to keep critical race theory and smears against Jordan Peterson out of Captain America comics? Apparently, Marvel has decided it doesn’t want any of those pesky conservatives to be part of its audience.
Tyler O’Neil is the author of Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Follow him on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.
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