Jordan Peterson: Marxism is Partly TRUE

Jordan B Peterson (born June 12, 1962) is a Canadian clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of Toronto. In this clip he talks about marxism, identity and postmodernism.

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[PhilosophyInsights]

For more content on political philosophy with a focus on free speech and classical liberal ideas and a critique of

[trevorwongsam]

As a former Marxist I feel the need to correct Jordan on some of his basic premises for the sake of being truthful and correct for those who know nothing about the subject. It is not true that Classical Marxism was based on looking to the future rather than the past. In fact the vast overwhelming majority of Marx's writing were based on the study of the past and the present (at the time) and next to nothing about the future. The premise " that all hitherto history has been the history of class struggle" explains this very clearly. Indeed the Marxists considered that the victory of capitalism over the feudal system was great progress for mankind. The starting point for Marxism was that capitalism although expanding the means of production exponentially would be short lived and the next great leap in the progress of mankind would be the coming of socialism through the very same driving force of class struggle that brought capitalism to power.

I think because Jordan begins from a psychological point of view he tends to lump together anything and everything that he sees as ideologically erroneous into one pot and labels it Marxism. Post modernism, feminism etc etc have very little to do with Classical Marxism which was a product of the 1840s and not the 1950s.

[AntonioBrandao]

Not sure if the title of the video is very well chosen

[BigBennKlingon]

Marx didnt critique "western civilization" or "greed", he critiqued capitalism (as well as other forms for production). You can think of that what you may, but throwing every idea of the broad left into a pot and calling it "Marxism" is not a particularly useful way to analyze Marx, Marxists or the left as a whole.

[tubsymcghee]

Jordan Peterson talks a lot about how Marxism is authoritarian but for some reason never mentions that Marx's main critique of capitalism was that it prevents individuals from leading self-determining lives in which they can develop themselves as individuals and flourish.

[Baconthief]

Marxism would be great if I lived in a tribe of like 100 people, not much more than that though.

[rhysoliver]

I've commented as a Marxist here before. But I have to say. Jordan is really Testing my commitment to those ideas...

[AdrienBCaldwell]

I could listen to Jordan Peterson all day.

[DestroyerMariko]

Gosh, I had to go back and look up post-modernism again. It wasn't taught that well when I was in school, didn't realise it was quite so insane!

[TommyApplecore]

I think the title of this video is a good reminder that there are always "two sides to every story", as the old saying goes. My own life experience has taught me that whenever I see two "sides" arguing, there will be _some_ truth in Both their arguments. That's how the truth works, it doesn't take sides.

[recoveringnewyorker]

Many of my socialist friends, family, and acquaintances, would mock my faith by saying "Well, Jesus (Yeshua) was a socialist". That's true. However, our savior was for volunteer socialism. You should want to give of a pure and open heart. And not coerced to give because your government threatened you with prison time and/or confiscation of your property.

[wowthtsgood]

Dude I got a 2.5 minute unskippable ad. Wtf?

[raymondleemeadows]

Marx's analysis of Capitalism as an economic system was correct and it must be recognised that Marx's influence on the Labour movement has benefitted the individual within Western society, as has Wesleyan Methodism. The Labour movement has protected Western populace against the worst aspects of industrial Capitalism, and has been a progenitor of Liberal Democracy. Look at the country with no Labour rights or Unions movements - these are the 'Shithole' countries that Trump talks of. I'm by no means saying Peterson is wrong or that Marx's proposed solutions are correct but Marx's analysis and criticisms of Capitalism and subsequent influence have benefited us all. The problem I have is with the Neo-Marxist, Post-Modern Academics with their perpetuation of identity politics. The irony is that in some ways Neo-Marxism works against Marx's methods of revolution, primarily because identity politics perpetuates division within the Proletariat and makes criticism of mass unskilled migration politically incorrect, this only serves the Globalist, Neo-Liberal and Neo-Conservative Capitalist classes who have used immigration as a means of keeping wages low and profits high.

[robertl]

Wow.  A lot of crazies in the comment section.

[HamChuc]

I've been watching/listening to Dr. Peterson for about 2 months now. When you think of ideas and lectures that would help high school students, his videos should be mandatory viewing for high school history class.

[karljuhnke]

Unfortunately competence, working hard and integrity have been replaced by adherence to ideology in the humanities. Been that way for 30 plus years.

[jonathantaylor]

Did I hear JP say 2/3 of people who rise to the top do not get there by intelligence and hard work?

[johnschmalbach]

I think Petersen is indeed an erudite and educated person, in his field, but here, and elsewhere, he bases part of his issue with two errors. The first is that he at least seems to engage in the following fallacy. Marxists and Neo-Marxists on on the Left, ergo the Left is Marxist.

The second is a misunderstanding of Marxism. The Socialists that came BEFORE Marx did indeed engage in the practice of Utopian world building. Marx actually first introduced the term "utopian socialism" and derided it as not being possible. In "The Poverty of Philosophy" Marx does a good job explaining what he sees as the failings of utopian socialism and the improvements of what he calls "scientific socialism."

I do not point out the above to say that Marxism is a good thing, clearly it isn't. However if one is to successfully argue against an opposing view point in the public space, with the intent of influencing policy, one has to use proper arguments. Imo Petersen's near obsession with Marxism, leads him to arguments that don't address other "targets" on the Left that arguably have greater influence and his misunderstanding of Marxism in general leads to the arguments he does make to at times be inaccurate. As an example, he makes contradictory statements. On the one hand he says, rightly so, that Neo-Marxism is a response to the failure of Marxism under the auspices, and abuse, of the USSR and the People's Republic of China. The thing is one of these responses is a very strong anti-authoritarian strain because they determined that one of the reasons Marxism failed in reality is because in the long term Authoritarian regimes are unsustainable.

There are indeed arguments to be made, I just don't think that Dr Petersen has done enough research into the relevant philosophies and instead is guided by stereotypes.

[pagetvido]

Excellent point - many of the people unhappy with modern society compare it with a fantasy utopia. When compared fairly with other real human societies, suddenly it actually has a lot of positives, despite the problems.

[jayp]

The bible (ecc 8:9) specifically says that “man is dominating man to his injury” which rather fits the that Peterson decries as part of the ‘postmodernist’ agenda while he juxtaposes the supposed ‘postmodernist’ message unfavourably with the bible’s message itself. Yet there is a clear correlation between the 2 messages.

A lot of what Peterson says is right; let’s be real, in the West you should be able to make a living and acquire a roof over your head, food, a family and at least survive if you’re willing to work hard, if you’re intelligent and if you keep your mouth shut. And the latter part is the true tragedy. In the UK, wages are at a lower level than 2007 before the world economic crash. The cost of living has continued to rise in that time and the taxpayer has to pay welfare in the form of working tax credits and child tax credits to subsidise families wages; effectively subsidising the corporations themselves while on the whole, they have continued to make profits annually. Capitalism isn’t bad, but this form of unregulated capitalism is loaded in favour of the major players, hence it is becoming harder for people in society to achieve the promised land of a productive life based solely on the metrics of ‘conscientiousness’ and intelligence’. 16% of adults aged 25-34 own their home compared to 46% of the same group in 1997 for goodness sake.

We are not chopping off each other’s heads or throwing people in jail for voicing opposition (yet) but have we really got it as great as he’s saying? For all of Marxism’s flaws, THESE issues are the kinds of things they complain about and the fear of state control is ingrained that western society has done is sold it out for corporate control via a capitalist system that is supposed to work for the benefit of humanity but is rampantly out of control.
I don’t want either, thanks!