Last week I posted an essay detailing the sequence of events that led to my surprise expulsion from Peterson Academy, along with at least 4 other students (followed by many others in subsequent weeks).
To share our point of view more clearly, myself and Frankie Joy Bailer, another expelled student, went on Jeffrey Van Leeuwen’s podcast to explain our case. Jeffrey is an extremely well-intended and thoughtful student who champions Peterson Academy. He spent months interviewing fellow students who wanted to share about their lives. Immediately after posting his podcast episode with Frankie and I, he too was expelled from the academy. I suspect they did not watch the episode, as it was extremely diplomatic and championed the Peterson Academy vision. It did, however, challenge some of their recent decisions.
The expulsion email Peterson Academy sent to Jeffrey cited the following excerpt of their extraordinarily vague Code of Conduct as the section he had violated:
“This is a civilized place, and we plan to keep it that way. We therefore require our professors, production, communication and customer service staff and students to offer their best, and to conduct themselves in a manner that produces a positive, upward-spiraling, productive reciprocity. That means, on the side of hospitality, that all those who bring all they could be to the Academy will be truly welcome, but on the enforcement side, that you will be required to leave if you act in the provocative, derisive, narcissistic and troublemaking manner that characterizes far too much conduct on far too many other platforms.”
That’s it: No clear example of his “provocative, derisive, narcissistic and troublemaking” behaviour, no chance for him to explain or defend himself, not a single attempt at dialogue or communication. Just a thinly veiled insult and what they described as more or less a courtesy refund. To emphasize, this is coming from an academy that bears the name of Jordan B. Peterson—a man who rose to fame by defending free speech.
Trite as our case may seem, I believe we experienced a microcosm of the pendulum swing on the political right. For the past few years—since the rise of radical woke ideologies on the far-left and the mayhem of covid with all its tyranny—there has been talk of a strange flip flop between the right and left. It has seemed, for all intents and purposes, that the more classically liberal thinkers either migrated or were “forced to the right” because of the hyper-dominance of the radical left in politics, medical and educational institutions. The funniest comedians even migrated right, or found themselves there as the goalposts moved. Free speech and concern for people’s health, wellbeing and general freedoms were suddenly considered “far right” by everyone who stayed on what used to be (but was no longer quite) “the left.”
January 2025 is not January 2024, however. The resounding victory of President Donald J. Trump has resulted in a shift of power, tone and atmosphere on what (for a few years) has been a very large and inclusive political right. It may be more accurate to call it “not-the-far-left” than “the right.” The MAGA/MAHA alliance was successful because it spoke to many of the centrists, us bastard children of politics who usually find ourselves helplessly relegated to picking the lesser of two extremes. Now, only a short while into the Trump administration, seeing the current trends on X and processing what I’ve just experienced at Peterson Academy, I have to wonder:
Has a dangerous pendulum swing to the actual far right begun, and is it early enough to stop it?
I’ve noted an increasing number of petty insult wars between significant figures on X, calls for censorship, mudslinging, and the kneejerk rejection of people who are supposed to be allies but whose thinking is mildly divergent. There seems to be pressure to push the right even further right. It might be something like an entire culture stuck in fight/flight mode; but if we are this harsh towards people of our own camp who deviate, how will we treat all those who wish they were celebrating a Kamala Harris victory? As a centrist this makes me extremely uneasy. There are also questions surrounding accountability for the DOGE, the sudden promotion of MRNA technology by President Trump (something the MAHA crowd should surely oppose), a quiet glorification of biohacking and transhumanist technologies, and murmurs of a future where you don’t drive your car but your car drives you. Five minutes ago we were the freedom movement, and now there are quiet signs of something that looks rather less like freedom. What exactly is going on, here? Is it an overreaction, a swinging pendulum, or a bait and switch? Perhaps more importantly, whatever it is—how do we resist it?
The only solution I can think of is to talk about it. We need to talk about this, and we need to be loud. If it can happen at an educational platform bearing the name of a modern champion of free speech, it can happen more broadly in politics and culture on the right.
As much as Peterson Academy touts itself as being a platform “Devoid of Ideology,” that is clearly far from the case. Both Jordan Peterson and Mikhaila are prominent influencers on the right, and Jordan Peterson gave a resounding endorsement of the MAGA/MAHA alliance in the 2024 US presidential election. (I have no problem with him doing this, but I mind the claim of being devoid of ideology.) Shortly after myself and other productive members of Peterson Academy were banned, Mikhaila Fuller made the following remarks on X:
“The woke right cancels like the woke left cancels.”
And,
“JBP [Jordan B Peterson] says this is partly what led to the downfall of universities. HR and professors catering to the cluster Bs under the guise of compassion.”
The first post is ironic: She has quite literally canceled the voices of students who sincerely wanted to continue at Peterson Academy, but had questions or were upset by the things she was saying to the community (Mikhaila’s full remarks to us are in my original essay). We were given no warning and there was no code of conduct at the time. (To be honest, I think no code of conduct was better than the Code of Conduct they manifested, which is censoriously vague.) She seems not to realize she is describing her own behaviour. This cognitive dissonance is not a trait unique to Mikhaila Fuller though—it’s coming from many prominent voices who supported MAGA/MAHA. Seeing as the movement is extremely powerful right now, I find this very unsettling. I worry about more significant overcorrections than the one we experienced in our little microcosm.
Mikhaila’s second X post potentially reveals what she believed she was doing by banning students without warning: Preventing her venture from being taken over by “cluster Bs.” The problem is, the people she removed from her platform were not “cluster Bs,” and she is not running a well-established institution being taken over by militant woke moralists or people demanding the rules be bent for them. She is running an educational streaming platform (in beta) with a social media page, which up until recently students thought was a free speech platform. After all, aren’t we the free speech crowd?
No. No, we are not. Sadly, there is a disconnect between how we view ourselves as a movement and the reality of some of our behaviour. [EDIT: I want to take this moment to be clear: I think it’s somewhat understandable that they would have this blind spot in light of the length of time they’ve been fighting, and the momentum that has built up as they pushed against some intense opposition. I’m not saying this as an attack on character (though I am obviously quite frustrated). I’m saying this as an observation of what happens when long-embattled public figures start to win.] If key influencers are this blind to their own hypocrisy in the most obvious low-stakes situations, I am deeply concerned key influencers and political leaders on the right will be blind to their hypocrisy in more weighty matters:
I am concerned that in the name of preventing moralizing woke mobs, the right will aggressively shut down dissenting voices.
I am concerned that in the name of no longer being hindered by bureaucracy, the right will strip away accountability and charge ahead with technology and development without consulting law or the voice of the people.
I am concerned hypocrisy and tyranny will infiltrate every nook and cranny of what could otherwise be a genuine cultural and political renaissance.
I’m taking this analysis to its farthest possible conclusion in order to present a warning to all of us who have felt the giddy relief of being on the right side of history in recent years. This includes myself. I’m taking a step back to ask myself if I’ve paid enough attention to how we fight. (I considered putting my own image as one of the ones in the thumbnail to drive this point home, but it seemed pretentious considering the fact that I am not an influential figure.) It is perhaps appropriate to quote a philosopher featured in Jordan Peterson’s own course:
“Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster… for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.” ― Friedrich W. Nietzsche
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