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June 26, 2025 - Lionel Nation
18:47
The Social Media Matrix Broke Jordan Peterson—Now He’s Just a Meme
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I'm a student of not just things that are going on in the world, you know, geopolitical, but also a student of psychology.
And I have submitted to you throughout the years, my dear friend, that understanding the psychology of your opponent, of the players, of the participants, of the motivations, that is probably 90% of the issue.
Take Iran and Iraq and all this kind of stuff.
I keep saying Iraq and Israel.
You have to understand the personalities involved.
And then you go into the geopolitical facts.
You have to understand the personality, the psychology of President Trump, that of B.B. Netanyahu, the neocons, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
And every now and then somebody in life will give you this incredible example of sheer, and I don't say clinical insanity, because it's interesting because the subject of this particular dissertation is theoretically a psychologist, but that is Jordan Peterson.
And Jordan Peterson is going to be, in my masterclass, everybody has to watch what happens when people's addiction to fame and addictions to respect and awe and the like outweigh the ability to deliver.
Sometimes you will see how social media have act as a kind of a potentiator.
The way alcohol potentiates diazepam, social media, and specifically the camera, have potentiated in many women in particular, this absolute desire and fantasy and need and fixation with being hot and attractive and beautiful.
And it may seem kind of cruel, but it's absolutely true.
Sometimes things potentiate an inner weakness or something in you that you never knew you had.
There are people who became gambling addicts who just went to a casino one time, just found out that in one particular instance, they said, my God, I never realized this feeling.
Or somebody who can remember when they were a kid, the first time their dad gave them a taste of beer, how it was a warmth or something.
It almost unlocked something.
It potentiated.
It connected this thing, whatever you want to call this thing.
What a beautiful clinical word, this thing they had.
I recognized the fact that Jordan Peterson, from the time I heard him say anything, was FOS, full of...
FOS is the worst.
I could take anything, but FOS, no.
I can take liars.
I can take deceivers.
I can take a lot of things.
But FOS, no.
No.
Because they're dangerous.
They're dangerous.
A liar knows he's a liar.
A liar may not care, but a liar I can deal with.
A liar is, for the most part, kind of psychopathic.
I can deal with that.
Somebody who's FOS is basically deluded by their sense of greatness, delusions of grandeur to an extent.
So all of a sudden, out of nowhere came this Canadian guy.
This Kermit the Frog meets Bob and Doug McKenzie, and he came up with this monumental, at that time, and very, very critical stand, where he said, I will not be bullied.
I will not be forced.
I will not be ham-fisted and bludgeoned into accepting this notion that I must speak of certain pronouns.
And at the time, it was revolutionary.
I mean, it was, wow.
I mean, and he was really good.
There was this one scene where he was on with, I believe, a BBC reporter or something, the woman, and he basically eviscerated her because she didn't know what she was talking about.
And she actually met somebody who was intelligent, and he's intelligent, there's no doubt.
He may not be wise, but he's intelligent.
But it was famous, and this poor woman, he tied her in knots.
Rather, she did.
So anyway, his star was off and running.
And people loved him because somebody was standing up to these people.
And it was at the time when we were so in love with and so in need of somebody basically standing up for common sense.
Okay.
Later on, it just he had his own particular addiction problems or this.
And that's neither here nor there.
Because anytime anybody can address that, I think it's a testament to personal strength, and I think people should be applauded for that.
But what happened was, this unique thing happens.
It's the being there, Chauncey Gardner.
It's the idea of somebody actually saying nothing and standing for nothing.
And yet being, for reasons no one can understand, heralded and lauded as some kind of genius.
And then, as someone is put out there and the FOS alarms went off, like, ooh, this guy doesn't know what he's talking about.
People like me and others said, ooh, He's good.
I can latch on to it.
I'm not saying I'm doing this, but I guess to an extent I am, because anytime you comment on somebody else, you're doing this.
But somebody could say, I'm latching onto his particular notoriety or his insanity or his whatever it is, and I'm going to exploit it by letting him speak.
Once you put him in a position, there was recently a debate or something involving atheists, and now he is either, he's staying, he's not in his lane.
And full disclosure, I'm not even sure what he stands for now.
I just know that whenever he speaks, there isn't enough time.
There is no quantum or fraction of time that I can utilize where I can turn him off fast enough.
I cannot listen to his voice.
Not because of the sound of his voice, but what he says.
He is so FOS, he is terminal.
Terminal.
And he needs, in essence, hospice because he has to be put out of his misery.
Figuratively, because he just, he's gone too far.
And now he's the butt of jokes and he doesn't realize it, but because he's been so addicted to internet fame and the money and this that he has lost all bearing.
And they're coming at him left and right.
And you get these other folks, I don't know why, the Sam Harris's and the Richard Dawkins and the professional atheists.
And there's that fellow from Oxford.
They bring him out and they just slap him around.
And his daughter one time did one of the most interesting pieces ever.
I think her name is Michaela, if I recall correctly.
I don't follow her, but she did one thing where she actually had on Norman Finkelstein.
And she dared to say, I don't know anything about what's happening in Palestine.
Please explain to me the rudiments, the bases of this.
And it was fantastic.
She actually kept her mouth shut.
And it was one of the best.
She never said a word.
And she didn't, because she said, let the expert speak.
He could learn from her.
But he right now has been vaulted.
He's devaunted.
He has enjoyed this apotheosis of this.
He's this genius.
He is this almost superhuman, ultra-human.
He's AI meets human.
And he doesn't realize people are laughing at him because he gets into these weird conundrums.
And he doesn't realize, I don't know what I'm saying.
Someone asked him, are you, and I'm paraphrasing, are you an atheist?
Are you a Christian?
And he couldn't answer the question.
Now, I don't know about you.
But I think sometimes there are people who say, there are some questions like, are you dead?
Are you pregnant?
Are you alive?
You know.
And others that are kind of interesting, like, what race are you?
If you're biracial, you know, sometimes, are you a conservative?
But when it comes to Christian, it's either yay or nay.
And when it comes to religion, you are either with or without theism.
Putting yourself in the I doubt question.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
I don't speak French.
I don't doubt whether I don't speak French.
I know I don't speak French.
There's no question there.
You are either a believer or you are an atheist.
That's it.
You are either gay or you are not.
You are either heterosexual or homosexual.
Variations within that.
You can kid yourself.
You can play around.
You can say, for example, I'm an octo, sorry, octo, lacto, ovo, vegetarian, I'm a pescatarian.
Stop it.
You either eat meat or you don't eat meat.
That's it.
That's it.
You can describe it all you want.
This is simple.
And I'm not pointing fingers.
I'm not giving people a hard time about that.
I'm telling you that you must recognize this fact.
But he believes that this systematic or this needless, ponderous dissection and deconstruction of the terms of it.
He misses the point because he so greatly wants to be.
He so greatly wants to be considered by you and everybody else a genius.
He so greatly wants to be considered an intellect.
He so greatly believes that he's fascinating.
He so greatly believes the fact that YouTube, not YouTube per se, but that social media metrics have verified his validity, have quantified his worth, have indelibly diagnosed his genius, that he can say anything.
And by virtue of the fact that it is he who is saying this, he can enjoy this limitless, seemingly limitless warmth and glow of a fawning crowd lauding,
bowing before, praising his iman, Brabding, colossal, inconceivable Genius, and as long as he gets numbers, our society will validate his worth.
As long as he gets numbers, people say, Well, he must be, it's like having a Harvard degree.
Ted Kaczynski, well, he did have a Harvard, he go to Harvard.
A man standing on a subway platform, eliminating waste in his own hand and using it as paint.
Well, he went to Harvard.
No, he, no, he's insane.
No, he went to Harvard.
Well, you know, well, he is a millionaire.
See how my metrics work this out?
Well, he is a.
It's the strangest thing.
So there's a lot to consider.
There's a lot to, and I hate this term, unpack.
There's a lot to dissect here.
But Jordan Peterson is a perfect example of what's wrong with us, but also the potential, the dangers of the internet and what artificial fame and the metric of metrics can provide.
There are kids committing self-harm because four or five kids at their school might mock them and might bully them.
Why?
It's not the power of bullying.
It's the power of social media.
It's the power of the camera.
See, what I'm doing right now, it's not social media.
Because believe me, if they say, listen, we'll do all this social media, everything's a safe, YouTube, this, but you're going to write.
You're going to write your words.
Forget it.
Be done.
Be done.
Finish.
No.
It's not streaming.
It's the camera.
The camera with the filter.
And what happens is once you feel that, once you look at yourself and you see, wow, wow, look at that.
This got a million hits.
I have a million subscribers.
I must be great.
Conversely, well, I don't know why he's that great because he only has, you know, 10,000 subscribes, 10,000 subs.
It's a subdirectory issue within the overall issue.
Let the FOS message of Jordan Peterson ring true.
Let generations say, remember him.
Let kids know.
And he, by the way, is not the only one.
I'm sure that with other particular, like Stephen A. Smith is another one too, who doesn't realize that people mock him.
That nobody listens to Stephen A. Smith because of his genius.
They listen to him making a damn fool out of himself.
And Stephen A. Smith will tell you, well, that's great as long as they pay me the check.
But no, no, he's serious.
It is, as we say, a shoot.
It's not a work.
And there are people out there who say, no, no, I'm taking it seriously.
If you met Kim Kardashian and you said, listen, I want to tell you something.
In fact, I do admire, not her, but maybe her mother, creating something out of nothing.
Kim Kardashian was, excuse me, I am not nothing.
How dare you say, I am nothing.
I am something.
I am something.
And I don't appreciate you telling me that I'm nothing.
I'm Kim Kardashian.
And they say, oh, no, no, no, wait, wait.
You and your sisters have a, excuse me.
We're billionaires.
Everybody's a billionaire today.
Compare her to Taylor Swift.
Taylor Swift packs him in an arena.
Taylor Swift has a product.
Whether you like her or not, it's a different story.
That's different.
If Albert Einstein, if, listen to a, to a, an interview with Lex Friedman and Terence Tao.
Two of the, It's the worst podcast you've ever received.
I don't know what Terrence Tao is saying.
I swear somebody's either speeding him up or something.
And Lex Friedman speaks like the anziolytic, like the Kwalu just kicked it.
And you put these two contrasts of style together.
It's almost funny.
Oh, it's funny.
So sometimes it doesn't work.
Here you have somebody who's really smart, Terrence Dow, but he doesn't come across.
And then there's somebody who, Jordan Peterson, who is far more videographically amenable to the medium, but is FOS.
You see?
And then there's Lex Freeman, bless his heart, who I think died in the late 80s, but nobody told him.
I think he's clinically dead, but has one of the best shows available.
So, pardon this maundering.
Let's think, what's the rule?
First, recognize your own limitations.
Number two, recognize the power of this medium.
Number three, understand what metrics are.
Number four, realize that your fame and your popularity to you may disguise the fact that you're being mocked and laughed at disproportionately and brutally.
That's all.
What do you think?
I've got some questions for you to ask, some questions for you to review, and I would love at this particular time for you, first of all, to subscribe.
Got to get my metrics up, all my metrics.
If this doesn't get a million views, I've said nothing.
It's like if a tree falls in the forest without nobody there and all that.
So please, please like this, please subscribe, please hit that little bell so you're notified of live streams and new videos, and whatever you do, I beg, besiege, importune, and implore you to comment.
I've got some questions for you.
Comment.
I love your comments.
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