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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 22, 2024

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Jordan Peterson is a case where we know he was targeted for destruction, because the people doing it said they were doing it. The mob helped, natural social media mechanics helped, but there were malicious actors with an open goal of "neutralizing an influencer radicalizing young men by any means necessary."

...So "they" made him take the Benzos?

I think this enemies put him under more pressure than a man can reasonably be expected to bear, and eventually it was too much. I still vividly remember the Cathy Newman (Channel 4) interview: I have never seen an interviewer more clearly intent on ruining someone. He won that bout, but enduring that over and over again would wreck anybody.

In case it's not obvious, I have a lot of sympathy for Peterson. Many influencers are indeed obnoxious grifters, but Peterson really does seem to have been a good man who was trying his best. Having people come after you like that changes the way you look at the world. I had a much smaller, more intimate experience along the same lines and it definitely radicalised me in many ways.

I don't know about Peterson's case specifically, but benzos are on the list of medications that reasonably-often get administered without consent or with dubious consent (e.g. I was offered them immediately following a suicide attempt, before they even got around to transferring me to the psych ward, and my understanding is that the more-hostile psych patients get given them by force).

That's exactly the response I expected, don't know why I bothered

I don’t either.

If you expected this, don’t act so sore when it happens.

Perhaps you could proactively explain how these malicious actors got to him. I also don't suppose these bad people made his wife sick or made him take drugs.

He seems extra pissed at anonymity and posting how it's bad. Very incongruous with the rest of the stuff he is loud pn-

I suspect he was getting trolled real, real hard by some sociopaths, probably left wing. (bigger, smarter group of his enemies )