Do we like Jordan Peterson?
Our score: 2 out of 10. A long run of his own words against trans people's care and climate science, with some real warmth on show but little documented good to set against it.
Jordan Peterson is the Canadian clinical psychologist who went from University of Toronto lecturer to global self-help guru. His fight over speech rules and pronouns made him famous, and the books and arena tours followed. Nothing verified turned up for the last few months, so his latest chapter is more of the same: the podcast, the shows and the fights.
The biggest stoush was with his own profession. The College of Psychologists of Ontario found some of his online comments, on topics including gender transition and climate change, posed a moderate risk of harm, and ordered him to do a program on professionalism in public statements. He lost in the Divisional Court in August 2023, and Ontario's Court of Appeal refused to hear his challenge in January 2024. He called it a “re-education camp” and said the fight had “barely started”.
On trans people, his own words are the problem. In June 2022 he tweeted about actor Elliot Page using her old name, and Twitter suspended him until he deleted it. He answered: “I would rather die than do that.” A month later on his show he said gender-affirming care for minors was “Nazi medical experiment-level wrong” and proposed making it illegal.
On the planet, he has called climate change “the idiot socialist get-out-of-jail-free card” in a 2023 tweet, according to DeSmog. That outlet reports his channel gave airtime to climate sceptics like Judith Curry and Steven Koonin, and the interviews drew nearly five million views. DeSmog is a campaigning outlet, so weigh its framing, but the tweet and the guest list are on the record.
Then there's Gaza. On 7 October 2023 he posted “Give 'em hell” to Netanyahu, with “Enough is enough”, and critics including journalist Muna Hawwa slammed it. Middle East Eye reports no reply from him to that criticism. Where you land depends on whether you read it as support for a country under attack or as cheering on a bombing campaign.
The human side is real. In a 2023 sit-down with Piers Morgan he called himself “a bit much” and choked up when asked about the admiration people have for him. Plenty of fans credit his advice to young men, but we found no charity or advocacy record we could verify, so that's honestly the whole list on this side.