I loved this video. I've watched your old Jordan Peterson videos several times over, so I was delighted to see that you had returned to this subject.

I knew a few JP bros in college. They were actually genuine and well-intentioned dudes, just seeking some self-improvement and -validation, but unfortunately they were misguided by JP’s facade of intelligence. A lot of them just don’t know any better, I think, because they haven’t read or heard anything seriously profound to combat JP’s nonsense.

My main issue is that these rules are mostly common sense. But sadly I realize what used to be considered common sense is not necessarily common sense to many people including many young men (and I'm not old, I'm a millennial). The fact that Jordan Peterson is so successful and the fact that his book has sold so well is at least in part because there's a real and true need among young men for dads or father figures in their lives to give them this kind of common sense advice and wisdom. JP wouldn't have been necessary a couple of generations ago. But he reflects one of the great voids in the lives of many young men in particular.

Thanks for going over these again, Steve. It's alarming how many people fawn over Peterson as though he's the purveyor of ultimate wisdom, not noticing that his advice tends to be banal, self-serving or unintelligible. The fact that he has thousands of followers hanging on his every word is an indictment of education systems everywhere.

This is brilliant

In my experience, a certain form of self-prioritization CAN be an important step in the larger process of getting out in the world and being of service to others. I think of those in-flight oxygen masks as a metaphor: the parent is instructed to put the mask on _before_ helping their children; if the parent is passed out, then they won't be able to help their kid get the mask on! Of course, helping others is always a good idea (I agree with you, overall, that thinking of and doing for others is our main purpose in life), but I have found that I am much better suited to that task now that I have set my own life in order. I'm not a Peterson fan, by the way, just challenging your interpretation to find some middle ground. 🙂

Thanks Steve! Great video!!

Good video brother, had some laughs listening

Agree completely

I've never read the book but you only really seem to talk about the rules themselves and not any of the meat of the book. There must be some nuance to it? He sure has to say something as to the metaphorical nature (or lack of) of the rules in 400 pages?

I can't control others. I can only control myself. I can do much more good in this world if my life is in a good state. Self-centered or pragmatic?

To go from "treat yourself as someone you are responsible for helping" to "Put yourself first" is a huge jump. That second rule is about not being harsh on yourself, not about hogging all the pie! Throughout this you nudge the rules beyond what they say, you assume bad faith and then caricature them so they can be dismissed. There's a lot of specificity - some would say nuance - in what Peterson says, you delete that. You seem to be hearing the ghost of Machiavelli whispering from the white space between the lines - Also, setting aside whether young men should be aimless or not, the fact is that many young people do feel aimless. Peterson squarely proposes that aim/meaning can be found in duty to one's relationship, family, and community. Its very socially focused - nothing like the bullying serve serving creed you posit - but faces up to the challenges of engaging with the everyday world (say what you like about the "stand up straight rule" it describes the posture of many people in leadership in my experience - for good or ill!). Some of the objections to Peterson seem to come from the fact that he starts from the premise that you have to deal with the world as it presents itself, not as you imagine it ought to present itself. I'm not sure what the problem is with Peterson having found an audience that he is making money from? That surely is what every author in modern times does (or has done for them post-mortem once they have died penniless in a garret by their publishers!)? The criticism applies to any successful author or grateful audience (I go into similar rants about Dan Brown readers - but that's my bad, not theirs). Peterson puts virtually every thought he thinks out there. It's all available to be critiqued and there's clearly still enough people getting value from him. By any measure he'd be over-exposed by now, but the fatigue doesn't seem to be setting in. As for the "ramble" point. His ramblings (particularly with other thought leaders such as Ian McGilchrist, Slaviv Zizek, and Jonathan Haidt) are full of rich areas to contemplate. There's a lot of similarities in the delight I get from listening to him ramble and the delight I get to listening to you ramble about books. Long may we all ramble!

Whats your favorite jordan Peterson comedy skit?

I'm a fan of Peterson and your channel, but as is often the case when you are talking about something you're not a fan of, your analysis is glib (which can be very entertaining to those who already agree, which is one reason why you are popular) and attributing negative intent and motivations to people you don't know by framing what they are doing in the most uncharitable way possible. I stopped watching after rule #2 because if you are talking to young men wasting too much of their lives watching porn or playing video games, telling them to treat yourself as someone you are responsible for helping is pretty great advice, but you reduce that message to "Screw everybody else". You also don't know Peterson well at all if you think his advice is meant to be selfish. The whole point of Peterson's speeches is to encourage young men to be responsible to themselves and those close to them.

Peterson can get in the bin! I remember seeing his 12 Rules for Life, which I have not read, on your 2018 worst nonfiction list. You question whether some of the rules are literal/practical advice or metaphorical; does he explain this in the book?

I agree about the pernicious self-centeredness that are injected within each of the first 10 rules and they seem to be only there to make his target audience feel validated. But i disagree with the last two. I think the 11th is about deterring prejudice, while the 12th is about appreciation of the little things. These two rules don't seem to run the same road as the rest of them. Quite the opposite.

Steve, I thought this was a repeat of one of your older videos. Anyway, we are back to JP. Not sure why, he seems to have the status of Philosopher status, saw him being interviewed if he thought Trump should run or should De Santis. Who appointed him chief political strategist? I've had a number of online conversations with his disciples, who seem to take his pronouncements as if they were issued from Mt. Sinai. One of these that is so strange is that 80% of YT viewers are women. Don't know where he gets this stat, it might be 80% of the people who follow him are males. JP further explains this that women like Fiction and men like Non Fiction. Then JP goes into that women like people and men like things more, explaining why there are more male engineers. I explained that if one views YT as informational and that both sexes like to be informed, that might be more fruitful attitude.

do graham hancock please!!!!

Another corker Steve, well done

Did he even read the book ? :D

A great dissection.

This comes across as uncharitable and reveals your underlying political sensibilities. You're not responding directly to the most charitable interpretation of his points. Jordan Peterson may be wrong about many things, but the territory he is exploring and thinking about is wider than the approach used here.

So a book about self-improvement focusing on oneself is wrong. Making money by using ones knowledge and making use of a demand is wrong. Peterson tends to ramble but its easy to understand when you are willing to understand. And if on doesn’t know some words, you could just google it. Cats like pets, its just some don’t know how to do it without bothering the cat. The whole video was about why you dont like that book and you trying to find points just to disagree. „Inaccurate cryptic knowledge“ like your buzzwords So at the end what I understood after watching this video is that reading a book about self-improvement as a jung man is wrong. Its better to be swept away by the media and be live a life where you dont try to better yourself and always stay in the hellhole that is life of a jung man in 2022 where one is told that by being a man on is dangerous, toxic and unwanted. Nice message

Much of this criticism can be summarized as, "I'm on the opposite ideological side of the political spectrum as Jordan Peterson," so I will denigrate his advice as worthless.

Do not disgrace a name you know so little about.

Rubbish tag on to Jordan’s content. Be better!

The idea that Jordan Petersen's motivation for writing the book is to make money is so ludicrous you have to be either incredibly ingorant of who he is and what he has done, or just flat out insane to believe it. He spent decades teaching as a professor, and 12 rules is a repackaging of Maps of Meaning that he spent decades writing, aimed at making it more accessable to the masses. He put his entire carreer on the line to oppose forced speech in Canada, and all of his subsequent fame is a totally unforseen consequence of the "notoriety" he gained after that. And by that I mean the videos of his lectures (that had already been online for years prior) started getting a large number of views, which was the principle motivation behind writing the book. He realised that there was a willing audience for those ideas. I suspect that you prefer listening to yourself talking than actually informing your opinions though.

Have you even read the book? Sorry, but your "prosumably"'s are mosty off by a lot. JBP is not advocating a cold-blouded egoism. He is not targetting young men, but people in general. I genuinely doubt that you read the book with any sufficient degree of care.

If ever I’ve seen someone trying to make a name for themselves by cheap criticism of a person who has helped many - your it - what you couldn’t get there on your own sub talent - get over it

Why are you so angry?

the key to truth is Christ, and although peterson speaks the truth more than most, he is still suspect in certain ways