You cannot know what you can withstand. You cannot have any proper sense of self-respect unless you know what you can tolerate. And if you avoid everything you have reason to avoid but should nonetheless not avoid, you will not know who you are, and you cannot live a proper life.
[The Jordan Peterson quote has to be what people mean about him being difficult to understand. It is saying that a struggle in life is worthwhile, although I would only say that perseverance makes us understand one aspect of ourselves. This comes from an assumption of conservatism that life is a struggle for survival, which is not accurate.]
This will conclude the response to the never-ending comment, not to Peterson. Peterson will go on as other conservative pundits do. Recently, I had the privilege of listening to Dennis Prager and Peterson discuss the topics of God and the attack on Western culture. I am not being sarcastic; most of the stuff Peterson does is thought-provoking. Since he is concerned about people challenging his thoughts, he formulates every response as a long, strained argument. This makes following him challenging but sometimes worth it. Dennis Prager, however, rubs me the wrong way. I have an ingroup bias. I think this is where the commentator has a point. For some, those who are “formidable” and confident are threatening. Although Prager comes across as bold, it is also possible that his look, which is the prototypical authoritarian from the 1950s (Christian, strict father, short hair, etc.), irritates me. I enjoy people who are a little more easygoing. It's simply a matter of personal preference. It does not mean that I do not strive for excellence and competence. The difference is in a matter of degree and what we ground our worldviews in.
Mental Rigidity
I've noticed that this person sometimes has difficulty dealing with nuance, especially when it comes to understanding the concept of quantity. There is a difference between some versus all and sometimes versus always. They don’t agree or concede to anything or try to “get” where I am coming from. Although this individual would have to take a test to confirm, it is hard not to infer that they would score high on the RWA trait, also known as Right-Wing Authoritarianism. This trait affects how they process information (see below) [1]. Since this person follows conservative dictums to a tee, I am sure they will retort with the left being authoritarian. There is some evidence to support this claim. The best estimates in the US indicate that the right is at least three times that of the left [2]. In any event, I am not one of them.
Processing of Information [1]:
- difficulty in judging evidence
- high need to compartmentalize info
- Ironically, they hold more contradictory beliefs than others, so they must be vigilant in categorizing to reduce dissonance.
- Once information is categorized, it becomes solidified, making it impossible to change their minds.
- The mind is also poorly integrated, so when they hear something that doesn’t fit right, they don’t know what to do with it.
- dogmatism — intolerance towards ambiguity
- Since nuance can be perceived as ambiguity, this explains why they must insist on absolute categorization without degrees.
- Absolute categorization says that something is either in or out of the category, and there is no deviation.
- lack of self-awareness
These are the four assumptions [3] that drive all logic within the conservative worldview. Notice that one of the assumptions is absolute categorization, which would explain why conservatives hate relativism but like moral absolutism. This does not mean that radical relativism is true in the postmodernist sense.
- folk-behaviorism – we learn through punishments and rewards, which affects all of their moralities
- humans are rational – this makes maximizing self-interest a moral act by way of logical necessity
- competitive struggle for survival – life is tough, which in turn justifies competition and other moralities
- absolute categorization – attributes are either in or out of a category, which gives way to absolute morality
Authoritarian Trait
Intriguingly, the researchers found some common traits between left-wing and right-wing authoritarians, including a “preference for social uniformity, prejudice towards different others, willingness to wield group authority to coerce behavior, cognitive rigidity, aggression and punitiveness towards perceived enemies, outsized concern for hierarchy, and moral absolutism. [2]
[It seems that all in-groups if they don’t question their tendencies to oust outsiders and prefer insiders, especially ideologues, are susceptible to becoming authoritarians.]
The following description lists the trait as a series of substrates or dimensions. We all possess these tendencies, but it is a matter of to what degree. And everyone can sometimes be an authoritarian, especially if someone wrongs us. Possessing this trait had some survival value if it still exists within the population. I think it is the rudimentary trait of all in-groups before we realize that other groups matter too. But if we possess the knowledge that it exists, then we can hold one another to a higher moral standard. As stated, liberals can exhibit this trait, too, but it seems to be much more pervasive with conservatism. The interesting difference is that left-wing authoritarians are opposed to the establishment, while right-wing authoritarians tend to reinforce it. We have evidence of mental rigidity in the commentator, but can we assume that they possess all the sub-traits of RWA?
Describing the RWA trait:
- To believe that authorities are always legitimate
- Follow and obey authorities and not criticize them
- Be intolerant of others who hold different moral, political, and racial differences
- to adhere to societal conventions and norms and value uniformity
- To agree to hostile and punitive treatments (e.g., coercion, oppression) for those who do not follow authorities or adhere to social norms, rules, or expectations
RWAs are likely to agree with the following statements [4]:
- “People who are poor just need to work harder.”
- “In life, winning is the only thing that matters.”
- “A company’s main focus should be profits.”
RWAs are unlikely to agree with the following statements:
- Building relationships is more important than building profit.”
- “Happiness is more important than money.”
- “Protesters are the most patriotic citizens.”
The Tough Guys: Gad Saad, Jordan Peterson, Thomas Sowell, and Dennis Prager
Commentator: Direct quotes from Lakoff (Leftist), a reference to Haidt (classical liberal). No quote or reference to JB Peterson or any other conservative like Thomas Sowell or Dennis Prager. Is the narrator lazy and/or gripped by fear of Conservatives? CONSERVATOPHOBIA!!!
The above comes across as a bully harassing the nerd on the playground. This is an intellectual debate, not a contest over who can intimidate whom with mockery and slurs. I have bent over backward trying to understand the commentator’s points, but there have been no original insights on their part, just rehashed conservatism. The only thing I have learned is that Peterson buffers the blow of being formidable with playfulness. The entire argument centered on whether the essence of Peterson is conservative-like. We already established that he is. The next argument is whether or not Peterson is contributing to the tension in status hierarchies. I think that I can demonstrate this with an affirmative. Play or not, Peterson is aiding self-interested people in preparation for combat.
As references, I did use conservative sources from the Cato Institute and Federalist Publications. But even this is irrelevant. The references I use do not matter in terms of their ideology, as they explain their scientific work, albeit in an accessible style. In principle, science describes phenomena, in this case, the different worldviews, and is not about what an author thinks society should be like. It would be impossible for George Lakoff, a brilliant cognitive linguist, to have advanced in the scientific community without having bona fide research. His views on how society should be configured are liberal, but this has absolutely nothing to do with his analysis of the different worldviews. He states that the conservative worldview is rational, and those who are conservatives are just framing issues differently than how liberals do, which is a scientific fact, not an opinion.
As far as having a phobia, no, I would say that it just so happens that most of academia is liberal. Furthermore, none of the “tough guys” have research published on modeling and describing the different worldviews. If they did, I would have used them. Their popular writings are opinions on what is wrong with the liberal worldview, which is often quite good but irrelevant to my purpose. I used to be a conservative and looked up to these guys until I started to question why I was attracted to conservatism. I know their reasoning and arguments in and out. I have had life experiences that have made me want to place more emphasis on being empathetic and gaining insight, rather than focusing on being formidable. I will say it again: this boils down to a difference in preference.
Parting Words of Wisdom
Of course, each side views its own beliefs and values to be the right ones (making us self-righteous), while the other side is deemed to be in desperate need of the facts (making the other irrational). Relative to one’s framework, both sides are correct because both sides form coherent and rational moral frameworks. In other words, liberals’ beliefs and values will only make sense within a liberal moral framework and vice versa. This explains why experts on morality believe that each speaks their language. Taking one example of many, liberals define abortion as a cluster of cells, while conservatives define abortion as a baby. Therefore, within the liberal frame, abortion is moral, and within the conservative frame, abortion is immoral. Preferences for framing things one way over the other are based on differences in personality or culture. These framing differences give rise to different beliefs and values. Once we prioritize and reason with our beliefs and values, then we have a coherent worldview. So, can we ever have a correct answer? Of course, but we would have to formulate our beliefs as matters of fact that can be empirically tested, which is a challenge. Most beliefs, morals, and values are known as distal beliefs and are difficult to prove. The best is yet to come …
References
[1] Altemyer, Bob. Right Wing Authoritarianism
[2] The Experts Somehow Overlooked the Authoritarians on the Left
[3] Lakoff, George. Moral Politics
[4] ScienceAlert.com