Althouse: Why does he cry? Why don't you cry?

May 5, 2022

Why does he cry? Why don't you cry?

"Why does everyone [mock Jordan] Peterson for caring about young, lost or depressed people? Is it such a bad thing to get emotional? The man speaks truth and good, but still people don't get it..." (Reddit).

46 comments:

Zev said...: He is a truly kind and decent person.
So of course the orcs hate and mock him.; 5/5/22, 3:53 PM
Sebastian said...: "Why does he cry?"

Cuz he is a little high-strung. I'd like to see his neuroticism and depression scores.

"Why don't you cry?"

Would it strengthen the case? Make the point more persuasive?; 5/5/22, 4:05 PM
Enigma said...: Textbook definition of "progressive" = Jordan Peterson
Political definition of "progressive" = Leftist partisan

Peterson is college professor in clinical psychology and an intellectual descendent of Carl Jung. These folks seek to understand the whole person, and advocate functional, adaptable behavior. They seek a pathway to live a good life, and could never be partisan except among dead-enders and dysfunctional people set on destruction.

Political parties today are filled with petty rapacious predators. Foxes guarding the henhouse. They will destroy you if given the chance, and so you must fight or die.; 5/5/22, 4:17 PM
Carol said...: Love that guy but he does seem to be losing his equilibrium generally. I think it's his weird diet, keto or whatever, making him all emo.; 5/5/22, 4:24 PM
Gordon Scott said...: One of the most interesting things about Peterson and his lectures is the young men who show up wearing their first-ever suit and tie. Now he's never said that young men should do that. But they do. They do it to honor him and the effects he's had on their lives.

Sometimes it's difficult for me to understand how young men could be in such despair. It certainly wasn't true for those who came of age in the 1970s. But then we were not raised in an environment in which men are blamed for damn near everything, and masculinity is derided. It starts early in the schools, these days.; 5/5/22, 4:49 PM
Josephbleau said...: Peterson reminds me of the medieval sin eater. He takes the load of Canadian evil upon himself, even to the point that his personal body is damaged. I love his University of Toronto accent, even though he was raised in the bush of Canada. I was also raised in the hicks and learned a better accent in uni.; 5/5/22, 4:51 PM
Assistant Village Idiot said...: Any stick that comes to hand will be used to beat Peterson. Others will mock him when he doesn't cry.

These are not good people, but they need to keep up their self-image of goodness by tearing down others. I don't like motive-reading, but sometimes it is pretty transparent. They just don't like him.; 5/5/22, 5:15 PM
What's emanating from your penumbra said...: Why does he cry?

He is prompted to talk about something that he is passionate about, and he gets emotional.

The clip you posted is cut specifically to highlight his emotional state and avoid providing the context. It's intended to ridicule him. To set him up to dunk on him.

If you want to know what it is he's talking passionately about, you can see the question and response starting at 59:55 on the full clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=DcA5TotAkhs

In short, he is recalling what he considers destructive advice given by another speaker to young people, which is that the greatest impact they can have on the world is to minimize the harm they do, for example by having only one child so as not to deplete the world of resources. The youth must be demoralized so that humanity can be saved. Inculcating a Malthusian ethic at the expense of their ambition to achieve. Or, more precisely, targeting their ambition for destruction.

It's important to him because he's encountered a lot of discouraged people who have on-boarded this viewpoint to the detriment of their personal flourishment, and he finds it deeply sad and evil. And in the wake of his struggles to recover from Benzo addiction, he wears his emotions on his sleeve.; 5/5/22, 5:24 PM
JPS said...: I have my disagreements with Christopher Buckley, but I quite liked this, about George H.W. Bush: For a supposedly flinty blue blood New Englander, the man had the tear ducts of a Sicilian grandmother.; 5/5/22, 5:27 PM
madAsHell said...: Doesn't Jordan Peterson battle depression??; 5/5/22, 5:29 PM
Lexington Green said...: Professor Petersen is a saint and a prophet and a hero.

Absolutely zero irony to that statement.

Really. Literally. Truly so.; 5/5/22, 5:33 PM
rhhardin said...: "I cannot help laughing," you will answer me; I accept this absurd explanation, but let it be a melancholy laugh, then. Laugh, but weep at the same time. If you cannot weep with your eyes, weep with your mouth. If this is still impossible, urinate. But I warn you, some sort of liquid is needed here..

- Lautreamont; 5/5/22, 5:47 PM
Wince said...: I'll take Peterson crying over Kamala laughing any day.; 5/5/22, 5:56 PM
Critter said...: I have long maintained that you learn a lot about people when you find out what they will cry about. Can they dry about the suffering of other human beings? Can they cry when they see another example of man's inhumanity toward others?

I don't see much crying from Progs, just anger. That to me is not a good sign about their humanity.; 5/5/22, 5:56 PM
LordSomber said...: Sometimes it's difficult for me to understand how young men could be in such despair. It certainly wasn't true for those who came of age in the 1970s. But then we were not raised in an environment in which men are blamed for damn near everything, and masculinity is derided. It starts early in the schools, these days.

This is a large part of it.
A lot of what Peterson says isn't really that radical. He's saying what a lot of fathers used to teach their sons (more through example than spelling it out verbally).

With crap schools, crap media and crap culture in general, parents are the last line of defense in raising independent adults.
And today, a lot of parents have failed.; 5/5/22, 6:18 PM
What's emanating from your penumbra said...: Sorry, the question to which he responds starts at 58:55.; 5/5/22, 6:21 PM
Dude1394 said...: This person thank you for the entire presentation. It was wonderful and recent.; 5/5/22, 6:22 PM
Leland said...: Love that guy but he does seem to be losing his equilibrium generally. I think it's his weird diet, keto or whatever, making him all emo.

I think it is that he nearly lost his wife, and then as she got healthy, he was prescribed a medicine that nearly killed him. He barely survived by going to Russia, where he could find the only clinic that used a technique to ween his body of the deadly medicine. And some of this happened with covid going on.

If after that, all he lost is his equilibrium; then good on him.; 5/5/22, 6:23 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Rh 👆🏽

“And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.”

Hebrews 9:22; 5/5/22, 6:38 PM
n.n said...: I have a dream, that one day, a man will be judged by the content of his speech, not the salinity of his tears.; 5/5/22, 6:47 PM
Josephbleau said...: "Doesn't Jordan Peterson battle depression??"

Are you concerned for his health? or are you saying that we should not listen to his ideas?; 5/5/22, 6:57 PM
Josephbleau said...: "Doesn't Jordan Peterson battle depression??"

Are you concerned for his health? or are you saying that we should not listen to his ideas?

Not trying to be critical, just wondered, i am sensitive to dissing people for mental health, sorry.; 5/5/22, 6:59 PM
readering said...: Not quite crying. When it was published late last month, a commenter linked the full videotaped encounter for consideration under one of AA's Cafe posts. It was a Stanford class as part of a college seminar. i watched about half until I gave up and jumped to near the end, and saw this. Peter Robinson does not respond, but just ends the seminar. There's a time and a place for everything.; 5/5/22, 7:07 PM
farmgirl said...: Every time you post about Peterson, Althouse- I thank you.
And every time rh shows that thoughtful, intelligent side of himself- I appreciate him more.

Being a good listener allows one to feel what the speaker feels. Peterson is an amazing listener. I can’t imagine the multitude of serious, damaging things he’s heard over his almost 30 yr career as a psychologist. He helps people. Sure, he gets paid. Good.

My father used to tear up when speaking passionately about unjust circumstances. A righteous anger mixed w/a tangible empathy. I do, as well. And when someone’s feelings appear in their eyes- I respond in kind. To tears, even.

The gift of tears is nothing to shame a person for.; 5/5/22, 7:27 PM
Bob Boyd said...: Doctor, my eyes...; 5/5/22, 7:33 PM
Deevs said...: I have noticed that the people mocking him for crying are typically the type of people concerned about toxic masculinity, e.g., a refusal to cry or show emotional vulnerability.; 5/5/22, 7:39 PM
Maynard said...: Peterson reminds me of the medieval sin eater. He takes the load of Canadian evil upon himself, even to the point that his personal body is damaged.

That is a Rod Serling-like description of the job of clinical psychologists. I first heard of the term and the TZ episode over 40 years ago. Jordan takes that role seriously. I don't think that people understand how stressful that role is.; 5/5/22, 7:39 PM
boatbuilder said...: A poster (Spartacus?) posted this last week.

Seems apropos.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XSWyfkkgCN0

Very funny.; 5/5/22, 7:47 PM
What's emanating from your penumbra said...: Peter Robinson does not respond, but just ends the seminar. There's a time and a place for everything.

It sounds like you are saying that it was inappropriate in some manner. Maybe I'm misinterpreting you. But that wasn't my take away from Robinson's reaction. The seminar was scheduled for 1 hour. With 1 minute remaining, Robinson asked him to make one final comment, summarized in one sentence. Instead, Peterson took 2 or 3 minutes to get his thoughts out, by which time they were beyond the end of the scheduled time so they ended. Robinson appeared to me to be captivated by Peterson's comments from start to end. And the general protocol for these types of things is to let the guest speaker have the last word, not for the host to respond or comment on the guest's last word.; 5/5/22, 7:51 PM
MadTownGuy said...: Critter said...

[...]

"I don't see much crying from Progs, just anger. That to me is not a good sign about their humanity."

When they do cry, it's a manipulation tactic.; 5/5/22, 7:56 PM
YoungHegelian said...: I think that the reason the Left hates Peterson so much is because Peterson is the primary agent in popular culture who disseminates to a broad audience the death toll in the 20th C of Marxist-Leninist regimes. He considers Solzhenitsyn to be one of the most important moral voices of the 20th C. He also cannot understand why the death toll of Marxist regimes is not a more common political & moral topic than it is, and who exactly profits from burying those details.; 5/5/22, 8:00 PM
Howard said...: It's good you people are buy in large understanding of Jordan Peterson propensity for getting choked up and weapy. I didn't watch the clip but have seen him do it before on several different podcasts. It's part of who he is. Like being gay or trans tall or short. It isn't a question of morality or courage.; 5/5/22, 8:10 PM
Narr said...: Big boys don't cry in public, and though I generally like JP's observations I can't see following this to determine whether the tears were justified or not.

JP strikes me as an instance of the old saw that people go into psychology mostly to figure out why they are so fucked up themselves. At least, the decent ones do. The rest just like to act like they have superior insight into humanity's problems, based on their own self-justifying theories.; 5/5/22, 8:32 PM
Narr said...: Big boys don't cry in public, and though I generally like JP's observations I can't see following this to determine whether the tears were justified or not.

JP strikes me as an instance of the old saw that people go into psychology mostly to figure out why they are so fucked up themselves. At least, the decent ones do. The rest just like to act like they have superior insight into humanity's problems, based on their own self-justifying theories.; 5/5/22, 8:32 PM
Bonkti said...: Lexington Green said:

"Professor Petersen is a saint and a prophet and a hero.

Absolutely zero irony to that statement.

Really. Literally. Truly so."

Word.

Logos.

And a full complement of ethos and pathos,too.; 5/5/22, 9:35 PM
traditionalguy said...: People who live in their reasoning mind and avoid their feelings avoid the distraction power of empathy for others. As they say a great surgeon choses not to feel the patient’s pain so he can make the right decisions for patients. But Jordan went through a suffering spell that nearly broke him. Now he can’t help but empathize with others. Or as the Professor says, he has developed a high emotional IQ now. And life goes on.; 5/5/22, 9:53 PM
stephen cooper said...: Young men are at the bottom of the social hierarchy, unless they are rich or otherwise unusual young men, or young men who rich people want to give money to because of their unusual skills at sports.

People who care about people at the bottom of the social hierarchy are always mocked.

Wake up. People hate on poor Jordan because they are embarrassed that he cares about losers so much. People are afraid to recognize that fact - generally, nobody wants to admit that when he or she is looking at a loser, they might as well be looking at themself in a mirror, unless they have virtue and a good heart, which, usually, they don't.; 5/5/22, 10:19 PM
Sprezzatura said...: He was addicted to benzos, after a bunch of treatment shopping he ended up in Russia (as everyone does, duh), he went twenty five days w/ zero sleep (technically he claimed this, but he was obviously completely full of shit, though ironically he’ll probably tell us that he never shits*), he says he was suicidal and all sorts of other stuff too.

Also he wants you to make your bed in the morning, cause that will help to fix your life. Not to mention that he became famous because he fussed about loony woke folks that were worried about the feelings of people that were requesting pronouns that didn’t matchup with dicks and pussies.

Got it.

* Folks here may not get the reference. Or they may think of Kim. But it’d be cool (IMHO) if someone knows:

“Up on the hilltop where the vultures perch
That's where I'm gonna build my church
T'ain't gonna be no priest, ain't gonna be no boss
Just Charles Nelson Reilly nailed to a cross
I don't piss, I don't shit, I'm gettin' no relief
People shake their heads in disbelief, go!
Just me on a hilltop with fifteen girls
In a Nelson Reilly orgy that'll make your hair curl
I don't piss, I don't shit, I'm gettin' no relief
People shake their heads in disbelief
Yeah, Charles Nelson Reilly, he's our man
He can't heal the sick with the touch of his hand
He can't walk on the water, can't make wine flow
Just another greedy actor on the late, late show!
I don't piss, I don't shit, I'm gettin' no relief
People shake their heads in disbelief, go!”; 5/5/22, 10:50 PM
madAsHell said...: "Doesn't Jordan Peterson battle depression??"

Depression might make one more susceptible to emotional releases.

You have obviously never walked a mile in those shoes. It ain't fun.; 5/5/22, 11:41 PM
madAsHell said...: Joe Blow.....how did the thread start??

"Why does he cry?'

You didn't do well on the standardized reading tests.......did you?; 5/5/22, 11:46 PM
farmgirl said...: Spezz: https://youtu.be/A5slPlkRph0

As a farmgirl, I take offense ;0); 5/6/22, 2:31 PM
farmgirl said...: Boatbuilder:
Hah!!!; 5/6/22, 2:39 PM
Craig Howard said...: more through example than spelling it out verbally

Yes! Teaching by example is more powerful and effective than the Socratic method (which ain’t bad).

I think we forget that.; 5/6/22, 6:29 PM
Gordon Scott said...: Sprezzatura, you don't know what you're talking about.

I hope you never have to go through a fraction of what he suffered, and still suffers to this day. Benzo withdrawal can suddenly turn into hell on earth. Do you think he could not afford the best treatment available? Of course he can. And he still nearly died.

I cannot imagine what courage it takes to deal with the pain he suffers every single day.; 5/6/22, 6:58 PM
The Hawk said...: Want to appreciate Peterson's message even more? Then I encourage you to watch this 13-minute classroom commentary. I found it profoundly moving as well as deeply informative about the ideas underlying our societal conflict - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaAA_jkkkpU; 5/6/22, 7:50 PM
philSalvarado said...: Peterson cries because he pays such careful, close attention to those matters that he addresses. Imaging the pain of carefully and intensively listening to the suffering of thousands is certainly beyond my capacity and probably that of most people.

Frankly, it is Peterson’s self-control that is the wonder here.; 5/7/22, 8:50 AM