The Travesty of Comparing Jordan Peterson to Hitler

In a recent Merion West article, Dr. Gabriel Andrade asserts that Jordan Peterson “needs to think harder” about the detrimental effects of his Nietzschean/Randian-inspired philosophy and “must try harder to disavow some of the tendentious readings that people make of his words.” Andrade depicts Ayn Rand as a substandard philosopher and Peterson as an inferior version of Rand—more aptly a “self help motivational coach,” whose ideas resonate with young males and also some of the worst individuals in society, such as members of the alt-right.

Although Andrade wonders what all the “hand-wringing surrounding [Peterson] is all about” and may prefer the “Cliffnotes version of his ideas,” many fans view the Canadian psychologist as a modern-day hero. This is something Andrade seems to recognize when he contends that Peterson has seized the mantle as the “new right-wing intellectual guru.” In doing so, Peterson, according to Andrade, is filling the right’s thirty year intellectual vacuum that has been in place since the death of Ayn Rand.

Unlike some of his peers, Andrade is very careful in how he structures his arguments. Although he never directly compares Peterson to Adolf Hitler, his assertions are fraught with innuendo as he leaps from one unsubstantiated claim to another. He points out that “Nietzsche was not guilty of the way his philosophy was abused by the Nazis” but that he “gives credence to the thesis that his ideas did sow the seeds of totalitarianism.” Andrade is also concerned that “underneath all the talk about responsibility, order, and anti-political correctness, there may be something more sinister going on with Peterson,” presumably given the fact that some members of the alt-right and Men Going Their Own Way are counted among Peterson’s supporters.