Jordan Peterson GQ Interview Video

[heydaralon]

Rosseau did more damage to our world than Napoleon. Horrendous person.

I'm not a fan.

However, I see Marx and Rousseau as being a lot closer ideologically than you do. I think the General Will is pretty much a proto type of what you saw implemented in Russia and China. Rousseau didn't quite have Marx's burning hatred for religion, but he pretty much laid all the framework down for him.

It's Rousseau's misanthropy I can't stand. His historical pessimism (history means decay) coupled with his optimism toward primitive man (man is naturally good) that I can't stand. He was a cultural arsonist on a colossal scale. I think it all stemmed from self-hatred. He realized what an appalling man he was, assumed everyone else was the same and blamed civilization for his own shortcomings.
"Weak men are dangerous" - Dr. Jordan B Peterson

Well, I also think the noble savage stuff is complete bullshit, but in Rousseau's writings, he says that it is possible that this pre modern edenistic utopia didn't ever exist. I read one academic's paper on JJR which said that he did not actually intend man to live in a society with the General Will, it was more of a thought experiment. That being said, academics always cop out like that when their theories end up taking a shit on society. People say the same thing with Marx.

I agree with you that he loathed himself. He was a chronic thief and liar, sexually repressed, and he abandoned his 5 children at a foundling home. The condition of orphanages at that time was such that the infants almost certainly died. This is extra funny when you consider that he was widely respected as an authority on child-rearing and wrote Emile which is about the ideal education of the youth. Kind of a hypocrite.

[GloryofGreece]

At least one Swede, Hastur, knows what liberty is. Dude, if you ever visit the States, I got plenty of room at my house when you come to
the PNW.

Thank you. I will. I have never been to the left part of America.

My objection to using Marxism as a term for the regressive left is that they aren't Marxist anymore. Marx would be abhorred by the identity politics. To him, there was only one hierarchy that transcended all others, class. And class is not fixed. A rich colored immigrant transexual is above a native white homeless unemployed man but it doesn't have to remain like that. The whole victim culture attached to identity would disgust Marx.
Also, the postmodern practice of playing fast and loose with logic is so unscientific that any true Marxist would shake their head. Try to convince him or her the logic of this: Someone that feels like a woman born in a man's body is due to biology but if a woman born like a woman feels like a woman its due to culture. Feeling trumps facts and tone is more important than arguments. Logic is a tool of patriarchal oppression and any opinion is of equal worth. That is not Marxism.
The modern left that we have today is more influenced by Rosseau than Marx.

Rousseau gets associated with feelings, but a big part of his belief system was based on (in his opinion) logic and rationalism. Also that dude bought a 12 year old girl in Venice and shared her with another grown man, so keep that in mind as well. Kind of a creep.

A lot of my earlier political philosophy was influenced by my elementary to intermediate understanding of Rousseau. I read biographies on him and his Treatises & Social Contract etc. I liked a lot about many of his views on education. He was super talented and an autodidact. He had a day job of copying music for money which rich people paid to have it done aesthetically in those days. It allowed him to only be minimally occupied with "work" so he could write operas, novels, and essays etc. Plus like all Enlightenment era writers he had aristocratic financial backing. Anyway, the thing to keep in mind about the dude isn't just what you said be also that he orphaned 5 + children b/c he wasn't a man.

[heydaralon]

Thank you. I will. I have never been to the left part of America.

My objection to using Marxism as a term for the regressive left is that they aren't Marxist anymore. Marx would be abhorred by the identity politics. To him, there was only one hierarchy that transcended all others, class. And class is not fixed. A rich colored immigrant transexual is above a native white homeless unemployed man but it doesn't have to remain like that. The whole victim culture attached to identity would disgust Marx.
Also, the postmodern practice of playing fast and loose with logic is so unscientific that any true Marxist would shake their head. Try to convince him or her the logic of this: Someone that feels like a woman born in a man's body is due to biology but if a woman born like a woman feels like a woman its due to culture. Feeling trumps facts and tone is more important than arguments. Logic is a tool of patriarchal oppression and any opinion is of equal worth. That is not Marxism.
The modern left that we have today is more influenced by Rosseau than Marx.

Rousseau gets associated with feelings, but a big part of his belief system was based on (in his opinion) logic and rationalism. Also that dude bought a 12 year old girl in Venice and shared her with another grown man, so keep that in mind as well. Kind of a creep.

A lot of my earlier political philosophy was influenced by my elementary to intermediate understanding of Rousseau. I read biographies on him and his Treatises & Social Contract etc. I liked a lot about many of his views on education. He was super talented and an autodidact. He had a day job of copying music for money which rich people paid to have it done aesthetically in those days. It allowed him to only be minimally occupied with "work" so he could write operas, novels, and essays etc. Plus like all Enlightenment era writers he had aristocratic financial backing. Anyway, the thing to keep in mind about the dude isn't just what you said be also that he orphaned 5 + children b/c he wasn't a man.

Rousseau's music was terrible. He wanted to learn to play his entire life, but it never came naturally and he attempted several times in different places to tutor music and play for churches. But that was not where his talent was. He also tried to come up with a new method of writing music, which he submitted to the French Academie. It never caught on.

Rousseau actually did have a little more integrity than the other Enlightenment people, but not much. He could have gotten a lifetime of patronage from Louis XV for the Village Soothsayer, but he turned him down. He felt that gave him the moral high ground to turn Louis down, but then he ended up just bouncing back and forth between various nobles and rich people who sponsored him in one way or another for his entire life. I think he was smart enough to recognize the hypocrisy, which is one of the reasons he liked self abuse and dominatrix sex. He would ask girls to spank and humiliate him and in some ways he enjoyed being a sort of cuckold. I'm not making this shit up btw.