When I look at a story like cain and Abel, I think well
the question did that happen begs the question, what do you mean by happen?
Because when you are dealing with fundamental realities-
>> Yes.
>> And you pose a question- >> Yes.
>> You have to understand that the reality of the concepts of your question
when you're digging that deep, are just
as questionable about as what you're questioning.
>> Right, right, that's Jordan Peterson serving up
one big old dish of world word salad.
And look, I wanted to give him like a fair shot to make an argument here, right?
Because that video, it's floating around the interwebs.
People are talking about it, people are saying Jordan
Peterson using a lot of words, but isn't saying much.
So I listened to the podcast that he was on.
And it is the most insufferable conversation imaginable.
Like it doesn't really get much better.
[LAUGH] So I'll make my case in just a
moment, but Jake first an opportunity for you to react.
>> Yeah, I felt like Bill Maher talking to Dave
Rubin when Rubin says no, I'm a really good comic.
And Margo's right, okay [LAUGH].
So I hear Jordan's Peterson would like and then you have
to be it, and then did you ever notice the hands too?
He's got this weird thing he does with his hands.
But guys I bothered to break it down.
I like and I actually watched a little bit longer clip.
And he seems to be debating discussing with someone who's muslim.
And the guy says, well wait a minute, earlier in
the conversation when you were arguing for a certain position,
you said it was a fact and period and it
didn't need to be discussed anymore, and it was clear.
Now when I asked you a hard question, all of a
sudden you're like, what do words mean?
[LAUGH] >> No, you're totally right.
And that's why the conversation was kind of unbearable.
And I just couldn't listen to any more of it after getting halfway through it.
And so, that's actually a clip from Peterson's YouTube page.
He uploaded it yesterday, and it's titled Talking to Muslims about Christ.
Which could be a really fascinating conversation.
And to be sure, I thought that in terms of what I was able to get through and listen
to, the semi debate about Western colonialism was really interesting.
Well, I wouldn't say really interesting, it
was the most bearable part of the conversation.
The part of the conversation that at least captured my attention a little bit.
The video is in part a response to a
video Peterson released three months ago titled message to Muslims.
In which Peterson gave this genius piece of
advice without acknowledging any nuance or sociopolitical context.
And so, let's take a quick look at that.
>> It is time for those of you in the
muslim world to stop fighting among yourselves, you Shiites and Sunnis.
And also time to stop regarding the Christians
and even more specifically the Jews as your enemies.
>> Again, I'm gonna give you a chance to weigh in here, Jake, go ahead.
>> [LAUGH] Revolutionary thoughts.
No one thought of that before.
What if the Shiites and the Sunnis stop fighting?
>> What if?
>> Genius dude.
And what if they like the Christians and the Jews.
By the way, what if already a lot of them like Christians and Jews, which they do.
But he just assumes like all Muslims bad, hate all Christians and Jews.
And by the way, do Shiite and Sunni fight?
Of course they do, right?
But does every Shiite hate every Sunni, does every Sunni hate every Shiite?
No, it usually happens in situations where
there's an artificial conflict imposed upon them.
Which then leads to anarchy, which then leads
to sectarianism, at least the Shiites and Sunnis fighting.
Kind of like the Iraq war that the right
wing was in favor of and turned into a disaster.
But I love what they talk about in regards to religion.
I can't wait to break that down including pictures.
So Anna.
>> So one I guess piece of credit, because the tone that Jordan Peterson had in this
video was different from what I've personally experienced with his content.
He seemed to be a little more gracious.
Usually he just kind of rejects an
opponent's perspective or data evidence, whatever it is.
And he just kind of like digs his heels in more.
But in this case he seemed to be a little more gracious.
And Peterson also said that he had approached
that whole video talking to Muslims about christ poorly.
So he conceded that he handled that poorly.
And I do wanna give him a little bit of credit for that, right?
If someone has the ability to admit like, I didn't do
that right, I kind of regret it, credit where credit is due.
Now with that said, more words salad, let's watch.
>> Do you believe in God?
And I think okay, there's a couple of mysteries in that question.
What do you mean do?
What do you mean you?
What do you mean believe?
And what do you mean God?
And you say as the questioner, well, we already know what all those things mean-
>> Yeah.
>> Except belief in God.
And I think, no if we're gonna get down to the fundamental
brass tacks, we don't really know what any of those things mean.
>> [LAUGH] Right, what do you mean do?
I'm just gonna clip that out, and send it to
you Jake every time you give me some work related task.
What do you mean do?
>> No, but again, the what the muslim dude said is really important here.
Because before he's being super clear and harsh about his positions.
But when you corner him out of position, that doesn't make sense.
He's like, what do you mean do?
What do you mean you?
What do you mean boo?
[LAUGH] Do you mean on a boat?
Or do you mean not a goat?
Okay, [LAUGH] so, but yeah, again Anna cuz I'm fascinated by this.
The reason I'm fascinated by is that right wing held him up as an intellectual.
And I hadn't heard him for a long, long time.
They kept saying intellectual.
So when I finally started watching some videos, I was
like, my God, this is what they think is an intellectual.
That's embarrassing.
That's super embarrassing.
So again, I always wanna give him a fair shot.
So I listened to that whole section.
And I'm like look brother, if you're talking about belief
in God say, hey what do you mean by God?
Is a perfectly fair question.
What do you mean by belief etc?
You can even have an interesting philosophical
conversation about what do you mean by you?
What is it, what is identity?
What does it mean to be consider yourself I, right?
But that's tangential to the conversation you're having.
That's a completely different philosophical discussion, right?
When you bring that into this discussion, that means
you don't know what the hell you're talking about.
You're stalling and totally lost.
So within this context, what do you mean by do, or what do
you mean by you, is the equivalent of saying.
>> Yeah, look, I don't know what Jordan Peterson's genuine motivations are right?
Like there have been instances in the past where it
seems like he's just a mouthpiece for the right wing.
And there's like a grifting element to it.
But you got to really think through what you're saying.
Especially if you're gonna go on speaking
tours, especially if you're gonna agree to debates.
Like he did a debate with someone named Slavoj
Zizek, and it was on the topic of Marxism.
And he just, it was brutal.
It was really brutal for Jordan Peterson, absolutely brutal.
Because these guys have no idea what they're talking about, Anna.
They're just amateur hacks.
And the minute they use SAT words that the right wing goes, intellectual.
Telling me something I wanna hear.
I wanna hear that all Muslims should be Christians.
>> Look, it's not just right wingers though.
Like I personally know of, and people I work with personally know of people
within our like social circle, who kind of got sucked in by Jordan Peterson.
And this is the thing Jordan Peterson does a really good job filling a void that
I think the left needs to consider a
little more, and think about a little more clearly.
Because there are a lot of young boys and men who feel isolated,
depressed, neglected, all of that stuff, right?
And Jordan Peterson comes in, and he offers a solution.
He sucks people in with that.
>> Yeah, but Anna, I don't find that, that interesting.
I think that's a very classic right wing trick.
Find a problem, like corporate media is lying to you.
The politicians are not honest, they're not honorable gentlemen
having a debate, they're just getting paid by their donors.
They find a thing that's true, right?
And then they misdirect you, right?
And that's why you should be in favor of Donald
Trump, who is the most corrupt person in American political history.
Wait, how do we get there?
And that's why Bill Gates and Dr Fauci
are doing something to your covid vaccine, what?
Well, how do we get here?
You have a correct problem and then you
had an absurd answer to it, for political reasons.
In his case, yes, there's a lot of guys who are young and lonely.
There's some stunning stat I saw the other day that they're
having three times less sex now, I think, for men under 30.
Something along those lines, it's just I'm doing it off the top of my head.
So there is a real problem there.
But then he misdirect them into lunacy.
>> Yeah.
>> And being against women and the absurd ideas about forced monogamy.
And he just- >> Yes.
>> So that misdirection is unproductive, and often times lawsome.
>> Yeah, no, I look, I 100% agree with you on that.
But the reason why I bring that up, is because it's
not just right wingers who get sucked into that pipeline, right?
It's men who don't necessarily identify as right wing or conservative,
who might also feel lonely, atomized all of that stuff aimless.
And since, I think that there is a little bit of a problem with broadly speaking.
I'm not saying leftist, but broadly speaking, the
left thinking like the boys are all right.
The boys are okay.
>> Yeah.
>> And I don't think that's good.
And look, I wanna differentiate the argument that I'm making from what
I've seen online a little bit, because no one is entitled to sex.
So if men aren't having sex, and the number of men who are like
virgins under the age of 30 has increased dramatically.
My solution isn't, hey ladies, time to have more sex with the guys.
No, that is not what I'm saying at all.
But there's a deeper issue here, and
people like Jordan Peterson, and to some extent,
even more nefarious figures like that Andrew Tate
guy, come in and they fill that void.
And it's a pipeline to the right.
And- >> Yeah.
>> I think that we need to think a little more strategically about it.
Not just for politics, but also because I care about people.
I don't want people to feel lonely and isolated.
>> Yeah, Anna, so the left does make this mistake often.
So they pretend that there is no problem.
You don't have to pretend that.
There's no reason to pretend that.
You should have a constructive solution to the problem.
So we've gone through this with crime, there is no crime.
No, that's just, you can say there's no
spoon all day long, but there's a spoon, right?
And so, we're all getting disconnected.
It's not just about young men
and how they're disaffected because they're disconnected.
It's kind of thing with Jordan Peterson might
say, [LAUGH] anyway, but it's our entire communities.
It's we're no longer connected through our neighborhoods, our churches, etc.
And that feeling- >> Yep.
>> Of being disconnected is real.
And it's a big problem.
And if the left says it's not real, that's not at all helpful, right?
But this gobbledygook that the right does is not only not helpful,
it's trying to push you in oftentimes in a very evil direction.
Now, in this case for Peterson, you're right the jury's out on whether
he's just a knucklehead, or if he's a guy with a really bad intent.
But so finally, let me just really quickly show you a couple of pictures from
his book, to give you a sense of why he might not be a bad guy.
This is the most ironic defense, right?
Cuz this is kooky stuff.
I analyzed this testicle picture and none of it makes any sense.
It's almost like that last scene in Beautiful Mind, when
you see the chalkboard and he's been just drawing nonsense, right?
Look, I'm atheist at this point in my life.
So, and I was religious.
So, I don't wanna be too harsh to religious folks.
But this is all based on the invisible man in the sky.
And the invisible man in the sky thinks that
you are anomalous information and you descend into disintegration.
Because your have gone past the walled
garden and have the unconscious paradisal world.
Has all stuff in Jordan Peterson's head.
None of that- >> My God, I-
>> Is remotely true.
No, I think I just figured life out.
That was amazing.
Thank you for sharing that with us Jake.
>> Yeah, I mean- >> Yeah.
>> Everything he says, is just weird assumptions, and
made up things like the Prekaz McGann IQ egg.
[LAUGH] Okay, it just sounds fancy.
So people go, the Prekaz McGann IQ egg.
That must be a thing.
It's not a thing, okay?
And so last one show the second picture here.
So he has a hero on the upper right corner.
And he says, what should be the ideal future?
Okay, maybe that's fair.
What is the unbearable present?
Why, why are you assuming that?
>> What, why is it unbearable?
>> Why is the President unbearable?
Yeah, no, apparently the President is unbearable for you.
You're having a lot of psychological and
mental health issues or whatever you're having.
That's why you're constantly crying on air nonstop, right?
And then you're projecting that onto the world, and calling it a philosophy.
It ain't.
It's just your personal troubles that you draw a diagram of.
>> You know sometimes it's not about
reaching the goals, sometimes it's about the journey.
You got to enjoy the journey.
>> Okay, I mean- >> I should write a book.
>> Yeah Jourdan draw some more testicles, and then go to a therapist, okay?
Get some help.