Though #Jordan #Peterson hasn’t identified as a Christian for most of his career,
and seems to express his interest in religion as an intellectual outsider,
his outspoken views on gender and sexual expression have won him powerful admirers on the religious right.
This includes the anti-abortion group
"Focus on the Family", which argued that
“a secular professor is speaking truth” after Peterson made multiple posts on X in June attacking Pride Month.
The vibe at his New York City show seemed more libertarian than religious, however.
Many audience members, some with slicked-back hair and expensive business suits,
looked like they’d arrived at the show straight from offices on Wall Street.
But the crowd also included people dressed in hoodies and jeans, including one man in his late 40s who said he lives on Staten Island and owns a modest courier business.
Asked how a perpetually scowling psychologist from Canada can sell out one of Manhattan’s most storied venues,
he described Peterson’s appeal as “so many things, you can appreciate him on the superficial level,
like for motivation,
but you can also learn from him on an intellectual level.”
For years he’s listened to Peterson’s podcast while stuck in traffic.
It appears some of Peterson’s messages about climate change are sinking in.
When the Center for Countering Digital Hate commissioned a survey of 13 to 17-year-olds in the U.S. about “new denial” narratives pushed online by influencers like Peterson,
over one-third agreed that “the impacts of global warming are beneficial or harmless.”
Teenage boys in particular seemed more likely to hold extreme views.
Forty-five percent of male respondents to the survey thought climate scientists are “manipulating data”
and 41 percent agreed climate change “is a hoax to control and oppress people.”
That trend seems likely to continue, given that Peterson claimed in late July that over 5,500 people had already enrolled in his new educational venture
-- Peterson Academy.
Its professors include #Jonathan #Pageau, an icon carver and YouTuber, who has characterized fears about climate change as “secular apocalypticism.”
Another professor, the podcaster and author #Michael #Malice, claims that projections of sea-level rise are “literally a religious belief.”
https://www.desmog.com/2024/09/09/inside-the-anti-climate-culture-war-led-by-jordan-peterson-and-project-2025/
By and large I'm in favour of academics being ready to venture beyond their narrow fields, but I wish this professor had remained buried in his silo.