6 Proofs That Jordan Peterson is The Hero of Incels
Incel - A member of an online community of men who define themselves as unable to get a romantic or sexual partner despite desiring one.
Discussions in the incel community are often characterized by resentment and hatred, misogyny, misantrophy, self-pity and self-loathing, racism, a sense of entitlement to sex, and the endorsement of violence against women and sexually active people.
Jordan Peterson - Hero of incels. At least that’s what Olivia Wilde says.
Olivia Wilde, actress, and the director of the movie "Don't Worry Darling" has stated that they based one of the characters, a villain, on Jordan Peterson.
In a recent interview, she said:
"We based that character on this insane man, Jordan Peterson, who is this pseudo-intellectual hero to the incel community.“
She then proceeded to explain who incels are:
"They're basically disenfranchised, mostly white men, who believe they are entitled to sex from women, and they believe that society has now robbed them—that the idea of feminism is working against nature, and that we must be put back into the correct place."
If Wilde’s definition of incels is correct, I am here to say that she is right - Jordan Peterson really is a hero of the incels.
The only thing where we might disagree is the definition of a hero.
What is a hero?
If we say that someone is a hero to a certain person or a group of people, few things come to my mind:
Hero is someone who that person or group of people look up to.
Hero is someone who has helped them, or even saved them.
Personally, some of the biggest heroes in my life were people who made me realize that I could be more than I was at that moment.
My heroes were people who taught me not to feel sorry for myself.
They were people who taught me that I am not supposed to hate the whole world, or even life itself, because of my personal shortcomings.
My heroes helped me become better. Not only for myself, but for the people around me.
My heroes saved me from myself.
And sometimes, the way your heroes teach you, help you, and save you is not very pleasant.
Hero is never someone who taps you on your back when you are wrong.
Hero is never a “yes man”.
Now, to be fair, I was never a part of the incel community. I am not able to relate to them.
I also don’t consider Jordan Peterson my personal hero.
But if my understanding of incel “philosophy” is correct, I can confidently claim that Jordan Peterson is a hero of the incels.
That is, Jordan Peterson is a hero of every incel who is willing to listen to him.
6 proofs that Jordan Peterson is the hero of incels:
“Why can’t men find women to date? That’s not your problem.
Your problem is why can’t you find the women you want.
And you have to assume that’s your problem, because otherwise you have to assume that it’s the women’s problem.
Really? They’re all wrong and you’re right? Really?
Lucky you, maybe you are. Maybe you’re an undiscovered gem of some sort. Probably not.”
“What I would say to young men who are irritated at women is: If you are irritated at women there is something wrong with you.”
“What do you expect from women? If you got pregnant because you had sex you would be pretty damn choosy too.”
“Women don’t find you attractive? Well, maybe you’re not. Have you paid attention to how you dress? Do you have a plan? Are you as educated as you could be? Are you a liar? Are you a rabid pornography user?”
“If you were better, you would be more successful with women. You cannot be angry at women, it’s stupid.”
“I went out with a group of men who were having trouble with their wives. All these three men did the whole day was complain about their wives. And I thought ‘What the hell is wrong with you guys? You picked them. They are these women you picked. And maybe they have their flaws, but they are your wives, and that’s how you talk about them? And you think they are the problem? You’re so dumb that you don’t even know that you shouldn’t badmouth your wife.’”
All of these things were said by the women-hating incel hero Jordan Peterson.
And it definitely must be that incels, a group of men who feel entitled to sex from women, get their encouragement from a man who says that if women don’t find you attractive, it’s your fault, not theirs.
Now, let’s get serious for a moment.
I am not one of those people who thinks that Jordan Peterson can say or do no wrong.
In fact, if you’ve been following my instagram page for a while you know that there are plenty of things where I disagree with him.
But I do believe in this thing called being fair and honest.
And to claim that the work of Jordan Peterson teaches men to disrespect women and gives them a sense of entitlement is probably the most dishonest and unfair criticism you could have about him.
In fact, I believe that his “relationship advice” is the most underrated part of his work.
The person who tells men that, if they cannot find a partner, they should work on improving themselves, and if they do have a partner, they should respect them and learn how to communicate with them, is not the enemy of women.
However, it seem like we live in a culture where creating villains out of people who don’t hold the exact same views as you on every single topic has become something normal.
In a culture like that, everyone can become a villain.
Maybe even me, or maybe you who are reading this.
What are your thoughts on Jordan Peterson?
Do you feel like Olivia Wilde’s criticism is fair?
Do you think that the incels can really find something in Peterson’s work that would seem like an argument in support of their philosophy?
Let me know in the comments.
Thank you for reading.
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I've done a social network analysis of Peterson's YT channel in uni to get somewhat of a quantitative answer to a similar question: how linked is JP to the alt-right? It turned out that there are plenty of questionable channels referencing Peterson's, but no references from his to theirs. They engage with him but he doesn't engage with them.
It's like the alt-right (and presumably also incel) scene has accepted him as an intellectual vanguard, ascribing their skewed ideas to him, although he never articulated them. Whether or not he consciously benefits from this popularity is another question.
I think JP just gives very classical father figure vibes and guidance to a lot of young men with shaky ideas about the world from a lack of apropriate nurture and individuation. A small but radical subset of that group are incels. Because we humans fall for for our own cognitive biases, it's easy to take them as a pars-pro-toto and reduce JP to an incel hero. It's an easy trick and since he is so eager to go against mainstream bullshit opinions, it's popular to frame him so. I think that's an unfair assessment though, and one that seriously tries to sabotage public discourse.
I know a guy who grew up with two moms. He got really deep into JP content at some point because it filled exactly that lack of fatherly upbringing. It didn't turn him into a woman-hating shitposter, quite the opposite. He's the sweetest guy.
Jordan Peterson is for sure not a hero to the incels. He is one of the very few public figures who has the courage to speak up and not follow the mainstream. I've never observed any disrespectful behaviour towards women in his talks.
Nowadays people get insulted by everything, might as well give them a reason to, if this is something you believe in. I like to say - you have the right to get insulted, I have the right to not give a fck.