I’ve been watching Jordan Peterson

I must be living a colorful, intense life if I discover new celebrities and media personalities from my kids. My oldest son will be eighteen soon. My twins are eleven years old.

My oldest son gravitates heavily toward conservative views, but that’s a separate story.

My teenage’s son right (conservative) views are growing stronger by the day

Some months ago, he mentioned Jordan Peterson (who doesn’t, by the way, identify himself as a conservative — read Wikipedia for background). He called Peterson smart. Maybe it was when Peterson was banned from Twitter for some allegedly transgender-phobic comment. I have vague memories of how I first found out about Peterson (but it did come from my son — I think).

More recently, I came across a Medium article that heavily criticized Peterson for something I don’t remember either. The guy was being “canceled”. Well, he’s probably some ultra-right dude or someone very divisive, I thought. Some variation of Andrew Tate. Or Trump. Or DeSantis.

I do use social media quite a bit, often scrolling through a myriad of videos. From Taylor Swift to komodo dragons or podcasts by Joe Rogan — nothing is off limits for me.

So Jordan Peterson appeared in my feed a couple of times. I listened to him. Because I liked what he was saying. I don’t think I even made the connection with how my son mentioned him several months ago.

Then Instagram’s algorithm ensured that I got shown another hundred videos of Peterson. I watched a lot of them.

I don’t even know where to start discussing Peterson. It’s not like there was a single episode that caught my attention. They all did. ALL.

The guy is smart. Empathetic. Respectful. Honest. Absolutely not divisive.

I didn’t dig into why he’s being canceled and why he was banned from Twitter (temporarily, as I understand). Maybe he did say something a little controversial (what’s wrong with that?). I’m smart enough to say this — he’s highly emotionally intelligent. His ability to empathize and understand the incredible complexity of life and the diversity of life journeys is extraordinary. He’s likable.