Embarrassing is the word I would describe the Durham City Council’s nonsensical statement against Jordan Peterson. Civitas has covered the kerfuffle or fake outrage already this week from Durham leaders here. The link includes Peterson’s response.
What is perhaps so amusing is that looking over Peterson’s recent tour dates, Durham is not even one of the so-called more “progressive” cities on the list. Peterson has been all over urban enclaves in the Western world promoting his bestselling book “12 Rules for Life: An Antitode to Chaos.” It’s primarily a book about personal responsibility. Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, and Boston are just a few of the American cities he’s visited.
Peterson has a large following not just in North America, but internationally. He packs out venues in Western Europe. This is why this part of the Durham statement is especially comical: “However, we wish to emphasize that a person’s right to free speech does not include the right to a platform or an audience.” As was already stated, Peterson has an international platform now. The government doesn’t regulate who does or does not have a platform, nor do they get to take control of the narrative about who is deserving of an audience. The market and free people decide that. The whole statement is littered with inconsistencies and embarrassing illogical fallacies.
All I can surmise here is that the Durham City Council thinks it’s making some sort of heroic charge for the illiberal agenda, but Peterson’s statement exposes the preening for what it is, an embarrassing fool’s errand devoid of reality.
Finally, we’ve heard over and over again from some cultural leaders and entertainers about how House Bill 2 was this great embarrassment for North Carolina because it sought to reaffirm gender norms in public restrooms. We’re so often bombarded with propaganda about how the policies of the General Assembly “takes us back to another time” or embarrasses the state because of disagreements over policy.
I moved to North Carolina in 2015, I don’t think I’ve seen anything more politically embarrassing and absurd than the statement by the Durham City Council about Jordan Peterson, who is a popular professor out there helping people gain self-confidence, particularly young men who desperately need some manly guidance and direction in their lives. Peterson has the courage to stand up to much of the odious and noxious political correctness that is destroying the Western world and I can’t think of too many things more important or urgent in today’s broken culture.
