1/ Perhaps the most maddening thing about the conservative/libertarian/"classical liberal" response to inequality is how utterly self-contradictory it is, and yet how rarely people acknowledge it. Please follow along...
2/ So, on the 1 hand, these folks say inequality is due 2 bad choices by those who are struggling or on the bottom of various heriarchies. Whether working class/poor, people of color, women as women, the explanation is: behavior, lack of responsibility, the wrong mindeset, etc..
3/ The implication being, by definition, that if these folks, individually and collectively changed their behaviors & mentalities (about work, education, etc), they could traverse the distance between themselves and the winners, and actually become winners themselves...
4/ In other words, the premise of the argument about 'personal responsibility' as the key 2 success is: underachievement can b overcome, failure isn't inevitable & inequity is malleable if u do certain things. However naive, it is at least a hopeful and positive message...
5/ But then, these same folks argue that inequities (between class groups, race groups, sex/gender groups) are really just "natural" & the result of unequal talents. Equality, they insist is unnatural, so much so that any attempts to create more of it are wrongheaded...
6/ So, 4 instance, they say wage gaps between men/women simply reflect different 'natures' or racial gaps possibly reflect biological differences or class inequity is due 2 the winners being winners & the losers losers, and after all "the poor you will always have with you"...
7/ And THIS, quite unlike the personal responsibility mantra is an inherently pessimistic worldview. Its premise? Underachievement really can't b overcome no matter what the losers do, bc they're 'natural' losers. Inequity can't be bridged. Your choices/efforts matter little..
8/ But these positions--the bedrock positions of the right/libertarian take on inequity--R fundamentally incompatible. Yet few seem to notice. Now obviously the wealthy/powerful, who benefit from both sides of the inconsistent coin, can afford to ignore the contradictions...
9/ After all, as "winners" they can take comfort in the notion that they have taken personal responsibility, and/or that they are just a natural aristocracy of talent...either way their position is secured and rationalized...This makes sense. No surprise there...
10/ But for a lot of others who buy conservative and/or libertarian nonsense, massaging away the contradictions takes an amazing lack of self awareness, incredible ignorance or...something else (more on this below)...
11/ So, for instance, consider the sad sack, only marginally successful white guy, who feels like his life hasn't worked out the way it should have. In other words, consider the paradigmatic member of Jordan Peterson's audience, online or in person...
12/ He feels like he's not reaching his potential, professionally or romantically. And now he's enthralled by a guy who says: If u stand up straight, hold yr shoulders back, be like a lobster (seriously) & affect a different mindset (laid out in my book and videos!), u can win!..
13/ And yet, what Peterson and others like him also believe is that inequity is natural. He says this quite explicitly when it comes to gender gaps in wages, etc., and either says it outright or implies it when he talks about class and race too...
14/ So these acolytes are basically following a guy who gives hope w/one hand (follow these rules!) and then slaps the shit out of them with the other by saying, "nah, just kidding, losers are losers," all the while hoping they won't notice...And here's the kicker: they DON'T...
15/ Why? First, bc white men have been led 2believe our failings aren't really ours, but r the fault of feminism/multiculturalism/affirmative action/immigration, etc. So even tho Peterson tells us 2 get our shit 2gether, really it's a tribal call 4 a united front against THEM...
16/ The preeening & mindset stuff is just a symbolic reassertion of 'traditional' masculinity, whiteness, class entitlement, intended as armor 4 the battle against those who would challenge our prerogatives. It's not life advice. It's 'Successories' packaged as deep thought...
17/ It's philosophy 4 guys w/ attn spans that begin w/memes & end w/Call of Duty & who need a reason 4 their also-ran status & he gives it 2 them: he says 'don't be a victim' but encourages them 2 feel as such @ the hands of the above forces along w/'political correctness'...
18/ But again, he doesnt really think status gaps are particularly malleable xcept prhaps 4 a statistical few, so most of the acolytes must be just losers, in Peterson's worldview. But the 2nd reason they don't mind (other than the fact he's given them enemies 2 blame), is...
19/ ..that thing WEB DuBois called the "psychological wage of whiteness" (& one might add, masculinity) still pays dividends when tapped into by someone who reminds u of their value, so even if you're falling short, don't forget, at least your're a MAN and EURO-MAN at that!...
20/ You can see the pathetic pleading for importance and meaning not just in Peterson's audiences but in Richard Spencer's near orgasmic (for him at least) soliloquies about how white people "conquered, took the continent by force...we won!" It's all about overcompensation...
21/ And so long as white guys who are working/middle class & anxious about their status keep falling 4 the siren song of those who promise them they can be better (but really suspect they can't be), or already are better in some existential sense relative to "those people"...
22/ They'll continue to be marginalized, and let wealthy, opportunistic hucksters like Peterson pick their pockets in the name of empowerment...when the only people being empowered by this long-con are the con men themselves, as always...
