Seated In Action

Today’s episode is something of a departure from the norm. Here at Seated in Action, we don’t really like to talk about people; rather, we like to explore ideas, arguments, and rhetorical strategies—that said, we feel as though our hand has been forced. A couple of weeks ago, the notorious Lobster King himself, Jordan B. Peterson, professor of psychology at University of Toronto, produced a video with PragerU (titled “Dangerous People Are Teaching Your Kids”). Normally, your hosts would not take the time to pick apart a PragerU video, but we contend that the video contains an inordinate amount of not optimally valid and, at times, troublingly alarmist claims. Before we seek out to address the video point-by-point, we want to set the table for a broader conversation about said claims; in doing so, your hosts articulate the nature of their exposure to Peterson’s body of work, express their general feelings about Peterson as a public intellectual, and, in the spirit of Stasis Theory, define some key terms (e.g.