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Author-psychologist Jordan Peterson expressed regret on Tuesday over an impulsive social media post that led to him burning much of his Muslim fanbase.

AfterPiers Morgan brought up the controversial Give em hell @netanyahu Enough is enough post and asked Peterson, Were you surprised by the scale of the blowback? Do you wish youd phrased that tweet differently?

Peterson said:

Well, you know, I was upset because I had developed somewhat of a Muslim following on YouTube and I was very happy about that. A lot of people on the Islamic side of the world were watching my Biblical lectures, for example, and Ive had extensive conversations with Muslims on my YouTube channel. And you know, I burnt some of that up, and Im not sure I did that well, I would say Im certain I didnt do that in the most productive manner.

He continued, And so, do I regret it? It would have been better to do the long-form, to have done the long-form to begin with, before concluding, Twitter invites and rewards a certain amount of impulsivity, and it wasnt I dont know, Piers. I dont know if its ever time for impulsive action, especially when the stakes are serious. You know?

Peterson received heavy backlash on social media after he published his controversial tweet following Hamas October 7 terrorist attack, which killed more than a thousand Israeli civilians.

Israel responded to the attack with a series of ongoing airstrikes in Gaza, which have killed more than 8,000 people the majority women and children according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Watch above via Piers Morgan Uncensored.

Read more:
Jordan Peterson Upset About Losing Muslim Fanbase With Impulsive Tweet: I Didnt Do That in the Most Productive Manner - Mediaite

The question of identity haunts us, we inhabitants of the 20thand 21stcenturies, underlying all our political excesses and extremes, playing a central role in the culture war tearing us asunder once again.From the irreconcilable political divisions that are dividing our societies to the violent demonstrations surrounding the Israel-Hamas war, we see the consequences play out almost every day.

As individuals, in the absence of a firm identity, we are adrift in chaos and longing, prone to decomposition and strife. Something must unite our attention and our action, so that we are psychologically integrated. In the same way, as we join with others, something must unite interests and endeavors, so that we can cooperate and compete peacefully, productively, reciprocally, and sustainably.

The modern world has increasingly understood identity as a duality between an ever-growing idiosyncratic individual and a more and more totalizing collective. These two tendencies have grown simultaneously in a strange dialectic. On the one hand, there is the worship of particularity, the worship of the exception, the worship of difference. On the other, a growing bureaucratic state, and now all-encompassing global systems with an authoritarian bent, necessary to protect increasingly fragmented individuals from each other.Whether individualists or collectivists, we often act as if these two vectors of identity are in competition with each other.

The effect of this increasing duality has been the slow but persistent erosion of intermediary identities, the family, communities, religious affiliations, clubs, and now even the nation itselfas the individual sees these intermediary identities as constraining his or her freedom. The growing collective, conversely, sees these intermediary participations as impure visions of the collective itself, competing with its own totalizing identity. Especially in the wake of the global pandemic, we are left with hopeless and lonely individuals facing an increasingly controlling and invasive state.

There is, however, another vision of identity, one which is reflected in many of the traditional societies of our world and closer to our increasing understanding of the fractal form of natural patterns. It is what we could call subsidiary identity.Subsidiary identity is understanding that, as individuals, we are already bringing into one all of the different thoughts, feelings, and psychological micro-personalities within us. Rather than opposing that unity to an abstract collective, it is our very capacity to join the multiple into one that becomes a mirror of how we are parts of higher identities, not an abstract collective, but rather dancing within a cascade of unities, most immediately within our family units, our communities, our cities, and our religious communion.

So too, our families are themselves unified agents in the building of cities, and our unified cities are real identities forming nations, with each level existing as its own level of reality and autonomy, but ultimately always giving itself up into higher participations. In this vision, we soon realize that the highest vision of identity and participation is not government (though it is necessary), not a totalizing collective, but rather the highest participation and identity are in the very virtues that make it possible to exist together in harmony in the first place. Ultimately, it is the transcendent Good itself.

To be a citizen is not to be a citizen of an abstract collective; it is to be a parent, a friend, a neighbor.It is not in the constant suspicion of any common identity, but it is in celebrating and remembering our immediate bonds, our stories and rituals, our holidays, our monuments, that we can be anchored properly in the world.Nonetheless, the subsidiary model always leads us higher. By always aligning our vision beyond particularities, the very ones we unapologetically celebrate, by aiming toward virtue, but also in full knowledge of difference, of strangers, and of exceptionsthat is, in compassion to those who do not fit with our idealsthat is how we maintain our subsidiary identities in service of the highest Good.

Such an approach is the medication for existential angst, the source of the hope that abides. It isthe shining star, beckoning in the distance. It is the only true alternative to lonely wandering in the desert and slave-like subjection to tyranny. It is the ultimate sacrificial gesture, the offering of our little stories to the harmony of the whole.

Jonathan Pageau is an artist, writer, and host of the podcast The Symbolic World. Dr. Jordan B. Peterson is a clinical psychologist and professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. This piece is adapted from a paper delivered at theARC Conference in London.

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Read the original post:
Citizenship Is the Medication for Existential Angst | Jonathan ... - First Things

Its easy to believe that the world is falling apart while watching the news: climate change, political division, coups dtat, the global pandemic, Russias ruthless war on Ukraine, Hamas unjustifiable killings and the Middle East careening toward widespread violence. Before panicking, it may be worth stepping back to get some perspective.

Media-driven fear demoralizes us particularly when were young and engenders terrible political decisions by crippling our ability to do better.

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This is of course little consolation to those living in conflict zones. But the data speaks to the problem with the constant barrage of contextless catastrophe and doom. Analysis of media content across 130 countries from 1970 to 2010 indicates that the emotional tone has dramatically and consistently become more negative. Negativity sells, but it informs badly.

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The data show what we all fundamentally know: the world has improved dramatically. Life expectancy has more than doubled since 1900. Two centuries ago, almost everyone was illiterate. Now, almost everyone can read. In 1820, nearly 90 per cent of people lived in extreme poverty. Now its less than 10 per cent. Indoor air pollution has declined dramatically, and its outdoor equivalent has also done so in rich countries. If we could choose when to be born, having all the facts at hand, few would choose any time before today.

This incontrovertible progress has been driven by ethical and responsible conduct, trust, well-functioning markets, the rule of law, scientific innovation and political stability. We have to recognize, appreciate and proclaim the value, and comparative rarity, of each of these.

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We need to foster an environment that challenges fearmongering and promotes optimistic yet critical thinking and constructive discussion about the future. We hope that our new Alliance for Responsible Citizenship, which will host its first international conference in London next week, will be of aid in this regard, by bringing people of good will and good sense together from around the world to formulate and communicate a positive vision of the future.

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These policies dont make for catchy headlines, but they can do immense good: for a cost of $35-billion annually they would save an astounding 4.2-million lives and make the poorer half of the world $1.1-trillion richer every year.

If we stop being driven by fear, and instead look to the data and the bigger picture, we can see that the world is better than it was, and is likely to get better still. We have a responsibility to adopt the very best policies to move ahead.

National Post

Bjorn Lomborg is president of the Copenhagen Consensus and visiting fellow at Stanford Universitys Hoover Institution. His latest book is Best Things First.Jordan B. Peterson is professor emeritus at the University of Toronto and author of Maps of Meaning, 12 Rules for Life and Beyond Order.

Original post:
Jordan Peterson and Bjorn Lomborg: The world is not as gloomy as the media would have you believe - National Post

Sure, blockbuster trades at the deadline are fun. But have you considered the ham sandwich of deals?

Last years trade deadline was a barn burner. On deadline day alone last year, 12 players were moved in 10 different trades. We got Bradley Chubb to the Dolphins! Roquan Smith to the Ravens! T.J. Hockenson to the Vikings! The Jaguars swung a trade for Calvin Ridley, which was a big deal even though he was suspended all year! And that doesnt even include the biggest trade of last season: Christian McCaffrey to the 49ers, a move that changed the complexion of one of the NFLs best offenses, made all the more exciting by San Franciscos bidding-war win against the Rams.

Theres still time before Tuesdays deadline, but the period leading up to this years trade deadline has felt more snoozy, even by NFL standards. No offense to Kevin Byard, who is a two-time All-Pro, but a 30-year-old safety isnt exactly the stuff the A blocks and column inches are made of. Right now, hes the biggest name to move, from the Titans to the Eagles, while other top targets have been seemingly pulled out of the running to switch teams. Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins reportedly tore his Achilles tendon Sunday and will presumably stay put (can you imagine if the Jets had traded for him and this injury happened?), and teams like the Broncos and Titans, who are presumed to be open for business, might be feeling more inclined to hang on to their talent after winning in Week 8.

Instead, one particular brand of deal has ruled this trade deadline season. When teams have exhausted every other avenue, are on the verge of simply cutting a player, and would take just about anything in return, they opt for the most disrespectful trade in sports: the sixth-for-seventh-round pick swap. Or, as I like to call it, the Ham Sandwich. Last year might have been the most exciting trade deadline ever, but this may be the year of the Ham Sandwich.

This time last year, the Bears traded a second-round pick for Chase Claypool. A year later, in the year of the Ham Sandwich? Claypool went to Miami in a sixth-for-seventh 2025 pick swap! And a lot of these trades arent even for picks that come this year!

Van Jefferson went the way of the Sandwich to the Falcons. Mecole Hardman? Ham Sandwiched by the Jets, though at least they had the decency to send him to the contending Chiefs. We got Cam Akers, ick-swapped by the Rams to the Vikings. Then there was Randy Gregory, who was a textbook case, as the Broncos went through all the proper steps: They leaked news that they were thinking of cutting Gregory, they waited for teams to call to see if they could offer a pittance to cut the waiver wire order, and et voil, they got themselves a piping-hot Ham Sammy. At least the 49ers traded for picks that count this year.

I am obsessed with this trade because, while it is asymptotically close to being pointless, teams do it all the time. According to the Jimmy Johnson trade value chart, the value of a sixth-round pick minus the value of a seventh-round pick is approximately the cost of a bag of kicking tees. This trade is the NFL equivalent of posting old furniture on Facebook Marketplace for free, as long as someone will come pick it up and take it out of your apartment. Its the transaction equivalent of a take-a-penny, leave-a-penny jar. The community library of player acquisition. I love imagining how general managers haggle over these moves and get worked up about the compensation: OK, well do it, but well need a seventh-rounder and a couple new mouth guards! I bet Howie Roseman gets too into it. Media reports always sugarcoat the Ham Sandwich as a swap of late-round draft picks instead of just saying what it is: literally the smallest amount of compensation they can come up with. Maybe this is why no ones good at scouting quarterbacksevery front office is spending hours wheeling and dealing picks in the 200s that theyll end up using on a kicker theyll cut during training camp. Just release the players you dont want and let them choose where they play next!

Just for fun, imagine that youve made it to the NFL. Maybe youre an undersized fourth receiver or an inside linebacker with plenty of gumption but limitations on passing downs. Youve been fighting for snaps through the first couple of months of the season, and youre called into the office to see the general manager. You sit down. You fidget nervously. You wonder about the one weird photo on the desk. Is that Jordan Peterson? The man behind the desk starts to speak in short, clear sentences.

Weve traded you to the Rams. (In my world, the Rams are in on every trade.) Thank you for your hard work. Well make sure you have all the details. It was simply an offer we couldnt pass up.

You shake hands and leave the room. You start to realize you didnt really ask questions. It all happened too fast. Its OK. L.A. could be fun! And after all, it was simply an offer they couldnt pass up.

Then you open your phone. Theres no push notification from the NFL app or from ESPN. Is it weird youre a little disappointed theres no push notification? Hmm. You look it up: traded with a seventh-rounder in exchange for a sixth in a pick swap. It sinks in. Not the Sandwich! But take heart. This year, youd hardly be the only one.

Link:
An Ode to the Ick Swap, the Most Disrespectful Trade in the NFL - The Ringer