On Piers Morgan Uncensored

 I watched the September 27, 2022 interview of Jordan Peterson by Piers Morgan. I took copious notes on the interview. I want to examine the flow of the interview and share my reaction to what was said by both men. The popular video on You Tube was sliced up into several pieces with intermittent stretches of dialogue left out, so I am piecing it together as rationally as I can, so I beg the reader's forgiveness in advance if there seem to be gaps in the flow of ideas or some overlap or repetition. Here goes.

Piers Morgan (P): "Jordan Peterson is loved, loathed but hard to ignore. He is a clinical psychologist and a cultural warrior and world intellectual."

Jordan Peterson (J): "I got into a Canadian political controversy (Bill C-16) over free speech because I wanted to say what I thought, not having the government pick my pronouns."

My take: Peterson is pro-free speech of course, but more deeply he does not want fascist or ideologues of any striped controlling free speech. They claim it does not exist, and the libertarian insistence on free speech is but a ruse for members of the Western privileged patriarchy, especially white males to exercise their power over their victims. These totalitarian fanatics want to restrict free speech and regulate free thought and words for the common good, they claim. No way.

P: "What is your ultimate goal? You are famous now."

J: "I want to encourage people and I want to see what happens. The purpose of life is not happiness (it happens sometimes) but to take up responsibility so that you are prepared to withstand and overcome the hard times that visit all. Instead, you can have an adventure. Truth is adventure for two reasons. One: You do not know what will result. Be truthful but not provocative or incautious. Second, through free speech and truth-speaking then that is your adventure, your authentic quest."

My take: Jordan the existentialist wants the agent to be authentic, live in and speak the truth, and that quest is genuine and alive as the agent, as a free, responsible individual, comes to live and lives and contributes.

P: "I lost my job for not agreeing that Meghan and Harry's account was accurate. I needed to be true to myself, so I did not apologize and got fired. I dislike her claim to her view (my--her--personal truth). That is opinion. Truth is objective, based on facts and inarguable."

My take: Piers is correct. Objective truth is not knowable (at least for now) but highly probably certain truth is, enough to hang our cultural hat on. Meghan's or anyone's subjective truth has some value, but the objective truth is way more valuable, and her claim must be measured by the standard. Truth, especially objective truth) is from God and truth is metaphysical logos at work in all areas of society, private and public. Lying (straight false hood and deception or very narcissistic subjective truth and self-indulgence) is from Lucifer and that too courses through the veins of society and all people in their public and private lives.

J: "It is complicated. There are genuine subjective experiences that are valid, but that does not mean that a person's (my truth or personal experience) is a fiat that the public/I have to live by"

My take:  I agree.

P: "In democracy do I not have a right to say I do not believe a word you are saying?"

J: "It is also your responsibility (my addition-to correct the views of others when needed). We all have our weaknesses and blind spots. I need your objective critical feedback to back to health and sanity and ethical living. Some like huge celebrities and dictators forbid such as hurtful but healing criticism and it sickens them and they are in hell. They sometimes pull the whole society in with them."

My take: We all need feedback and correction, and when the guru or dictator bans such input on pain of crushing the naysayer, the hell he creates can take down all of society.

P: "Free speech is being suppressed. People are fired even jailed--I worry about that."

J: "That is serious but more deeply considered, the real fight is whether your claim to free speech is a masquerade to dominate and use power. Your white privilege hides behind your assertion to exercise free speech. There never was free speech, only a lie to mask a power claim."

P: "That ultra-woke criticism of free speech is a form of fascism."

J: "Fascist say shut up or we will beat you. They are more honest (than the woke). The compassion woke type fascists are narcissistic compassion types. We are really trying to save the world. We are acting in everyone's best interest, so it is better if you regulate what you say. If you refuse to self-censor, you are not a good person."

My take: both these hard and soft fascists are still fascists and free speech must not be outlawed, period.

P: "The hashtag crowd speaks of being kind, but the speech of these people is most unkind--they are really vicious."

J: 'Kindness is tricky. Kindness is a trait of those that get walked on so we teach them assertiveness training. You do not want to be so naturally kind that you let others walk all over you. If the kind woman is abused, she becomes resentful, bitter and conniving and resentment is toxic."

P: I want to ask you about your visit to counsel Christiano Ronaldo. You two met and there was a picture of you to together that was distributed, and he was censored for associating with you.

My take: I am an individualist and individuator, and each person should more or less, as long it is not illegal or wickedly immoral, do what he wants to do, and associate with whom he chooses, without censor, comment or backlash.  Jordan Peterson is a great, kind, decent, brilliant thinker, and anyone should be honored to be known to have associated with him. This woke outrage against Ronaldo is sick, vicious, totalitarian, and outrageous. It must stop. It informs us as to how authoritarian, arrogant, vicious, intolerant, ignorant and deplorable are these mobs of cancel-culture true believers piling on. The Left has a lot to answer for, and this is Exhibit A.

J: He invited me to his house to counsel him informally. Therapy is to help people find a way out of their misery. If the patient can set up goals and strategies to change her behavior, she can come out ahead.

P The movie character Rocky Balboa reminds me of your general advice message. Here is Rocky counseling his whiny son: 'The world is not all sunshine and rainbows. It is a mean and nasty place. I don't care how tough you are. It will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. No one hits us so hard as life. It ain't about how hard you can hit. It is about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward . . . that is how winning is done. If you know what you are worth go out and get it, but you have to be willing to take the hits, and not point fingers saying you ain't where you are because of him or her or anybody. That is how cowards talk. That ain't you. You are better than that.'"

J: That is a great message. Youngsters are demoralized. People are desperate for an encouraging word. One could turn bitter, cynical and withdraw due to suffering or just face it and work through it to success and meaning.

My take: Very inspirational.

P: "The young are anxious today for two reasons. Social media presents them with false, inflated ideals that youth are expected to live up to, and rarely can. Also, Dr. Phil points out that graphic constant horror and bad news shown in social media clips is wearing our young people down."

J: Yes, this information overload is hard to handle and no one knows how to regulate it well. But many intellectuals and leaders plot (my word) and seek to make young people anxious and demoralized. Boys are uneasy because the elites remind them, they are not allowed to assert their masculine drives because the entire West in a patriarchal tyranny, and all it has done is exploit and oppress. Any masculine effort is inherently toxic and evil."

My take: I have several reasons for wishing that young Americans would take up Mavellonialism. As anarchist-individuating supercitizens serving God, the country and themselves, these bottom-up, super-reformers would be too rational, too skeptical and independent-thinking to allow the Left or any revolutionary to undermine their self-esteem.

Revolutionaries and the Left here always work like rats gnawing on huge ropes anchoring the sails that propel the ship of state forward. If they can sever the ropes and obtain their goal that the sail crashes to the deck, then society goes into disarray, chaos, and collapse, and then the revolutionaries can rush into the breach and use their control of the military, the police and the machinery of government to erect their totalitarian dystopia.

By demoralizing and making children anxious, their scheme is to hasten the fall of America by shattering natural drives that youths must build a life for themselves within the traditional, healthy culture. Such undermining and conscious gaslighting is wicked, clever, deadly, and effective.

Revolutionaries destroy all the exists for the sake of bringing hell to earth, and just because they love violence and destruction.

If youth replace good beliefs and good values with totalitarian ideology and its lies, then they will support the new order.

J: "The data indicates that women like their men to be strong, confident and competent. It annoys narcissistic women and people that assume there are no biological or cultural limits on how we manifest our behaviors. It frightens many women who have never had a good relationship with anyone masculine in their lives. Women need to differentiate between competent, confident me versus domineering, narcissistic, abusive men--and all men are grouped as predators."

P: "High profile women won't define what a woman s for fear of being fired, censored or deplatformed."

J: "We have accepted this absurd hypothesis that your gender is subjectively defined, that your social identity is socially constructed. Gender is not subjectively selected. Gender is not subjectively defined except for a 2-year-old. They are egocentric so cannot conceive of an identity 2-year-olds cannot play together until they are three and start to build a social identity, and learn to play and cooperate with others.

Social identity is socially negotiated, and it is subjective and biological. Social identity is socially negotiated as constructivists argue but is as well a dynamism constantly being renegotiated as we influence and change each other, and play and do things together."

My take: It would seem that Jordan is arguing that children grow and become sane, healthy adults by interacting and negotiating with others constantly. This might seem to contradict my emphasis on the benefits of radical individualism, but they are compatible.

Humans start out as egocentric toddlers, and then learn to interact with others in the world and that is desirable. As late teenagers or as adults, each youth should begin self-realizing, while still maintaining a social identity and many group affiliations.

P: "What did you think about the Royal Family and the Queen's death? Did you notice the extraordinary outpouring of love and respect?"

J: Elizabeth had and exemplified old-fashioned virtues that are out of fashion but critically needed. They are humility, dutifulness, careful emotional self-regulation, discretion and the antithesis of narcissism.

Things go too far one way and then there is an unconscious desire to swing the other way to right things, and the outpouring of respect and affection for the Queen exemplifies this. People liked her constancy and tradition, and her pomp and ceremony were old-fashioned too."

P: What is good about England?"

J: "English common law, free speech, sardonic and self-effacing humor, mutual good will and willingness to stand 13 hours in a line peacefully and quietly to say goodbye to the Queen."

P: "What are your bad traits?" "What are your good traits."

J: "I do get angry and could better regulate my emotions. My family and I have been targets of vicious attacks.

I listen better than I used to. I am more articulate though I am banned from Twitter and must be calmer."

P: "What is the biggest threat to humanity? AI?"

J: "Narcissistic compassion. AI is a useful servant but must not become a tyrannical master."

P: I have to be rough on you. Olivia Wilder for her movie, "Don't Worry Darling", claims she based the villainous Chris Pine on you as the "pseudo-intellectual hero to the incel community."

 

J: "People have been after me for years for speaking out for the disaffected. People are demoralized and cannot make themselves attractive to women. Women are picky and that is ok for them to have high standards for their men.

These men are lonely and not know what to do."

P: You are tearing up why?

J: People are dying due to no encouraging words."

My take: Jordan has helped many thousands of young men to grow up and be productive members of society. If incel community men cannot measure up, they need to clean up their act to make them more presentable to women, and never threaten revenge or violence against men, and nor do women owe sex to any man.

Olivia Wilde is scum like her Hollywood-ilk and they can go pound sand.

P: "Some think Vladimir Putin resembles Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin, and this idea is popular in the West."

J: "That comparison is foolish and not backed by actual evidence. Putin is a lot more like everybody else than everyone thinks. There is a bit of Hitler and Stalin in everyone, and how accepting of government-imposed lies under pressure is part of human nature."

P: "Really?"

My take: Putin is not Hitler or Stalin but he is sane but quite evil. We are all born wicked and that is why Jordan asserted that Putin is human like us, and we are part wicked too, and allow government to lie to us. 

J: "Putin could use nukes. Yes, we are all more than a bit like Hitler and Stalin. Why else did Nazism spread; it was not just a top-down venture. People liked it and freely absorbed it."

P: "People were terrified."

J: "Jung noted that totalitarianism could not spread unless all people were willing to lie about everything all the time."

My take: "Truth is not only objective but is is metaphysically based, both morally and spiritually good. Note how systemic lying permeated all levels of the demonic totalitarian state. Truth-telling is mostly individual, rational, and objective, and lie-telling is mostly collective, emotional and subjective. Free speech and truth-telling must be protected and preserved.

P: "What will Putin do?'

J: He will wait till cold and shut off the tap." You can't win against someone you cannot say no to. I like humans."

P asked why the woke and transgender did not want a dialogue.

J: "Reasonable conversation is not on the table for them. They accuse those preaching reason and dialogue that it is just an example of you wanting your ethos to dominate."