THE LEFT AND THE RIGHT AREN’T HEARING THE SAME JORDAN PETERSON:

Some hear a man with important ideas that can help people live a more fulfilling life, others hear a dangerous misogynist who wants to set back the cause of liberated women, trans people, and the rest of the cast(e) of oppression. In a feature for The New York Times Magazine this weekend, Nellie Bowles clearly came down on the latter side.

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He also addressed it on his blog: “My critics’ abject ignorance of the relevant literature does not equate to evidence of my totalitarian or misogynist leanings.” The important thing here is that Peterson assumed his interviewer was up on anthropological terms of art. That’s never a good bet for journalists. We are mostly known for not paying for lunch.

Peterson blames Bowles for not being familiar with the relevant literature, but “enforced monogamy,” is not a well-known term of art, and it does sound menacing. Bowles probably should have asked for clarification before presenting it as absurd, but Peterson also has to know and anticipate that these kinds of attacks are going to be leveled at him by people who may be ill-informed in anthropology, but nonetheless well-intentioned.

I’d like to think that Bowles went into her profile with the intent to be “well-intentioned,” but her boss’s past comments regarding those who make up a wide swatch of Peterson’s followers cast a certain amount of doubt.

And that’s quite a large group: Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life remains #1 most read on Amazon.