Jordan Peterson on the war in Ukraine: downright absurd

Wars are fought in the field; but there is not only one field. One setting is often forgotten, even though it is closer than ground operations, aerial combat and cyberattacks: the space of interpretation. Here irreconcilable possible answers meet questions that cannot be avoided: What is the cause of the war, who is to blame, how could it end?

Since February 24, almost every respectable Western intellectual has spoken out about the attack on Ukraine. However, many people only recognize what is happening in the events that was already preoccupying them. Francis Fukuyama believes his prognosis of the victory of liberal democracy has been confirmed. For Noam Chomsky is Russia above all keywords; he prefers to talk about the United States’ register of sins.

Truth in Russian Propaganda

Now it’s Jordan Peterson’s turn. On July 10, the Canadian psychology professor uploaded a video to YouTube. In it he reads a long one essay before, which he also published on the right-wing conservative online platform “Daily Wire”. Peterson does not portray himself as an expert on Ukraine and Russia; he describes how he found out about the topic.

Right at the beginning, Peterson also emphasizes that he considers Putin’s attack on Ukraine to be “unscrupulous”. He finds even clearer words for the fact that the Russian Orthodox Church has backed the Kremlin. Peterson also lists frequently cited reasons that may have led to the war; such as Putin’s authoritarianism, his crooks, the awakening of patriotic feelings to stay in power. Or that many Russians see Ukraine as a vital buffer zone or an integral part of the empire.

But then it gets down to business. In other words, the man whom the “New York Times” described in 2018 as the most influential intellectual in the western world is getting involved with aspects of Russian propaganda. They never tire of repeating that the West is decadent, Europe is degenerating, and America has turned away from traditional (family) values. Peterson takes the allegations seriously and he asks: Is all of this true?

Le Pen and Putin

In fact, Peterson diagnoses a civil war in the western world. On the one hand he sees moderately conservative and classically liberal forces; they are being attacked by an intolerant, Marxist left that has renounced the Enlightenment. And Peterson thinks it’s perfectly plausible that Russia would attack Ukraine to prevent the country from being handed over to the “pathological West”. In addition, not only does the Kremlin see us in moral and social decline, but Poland and Hungary (or even Le Pen) are also in the same boat in terms of cultural policy. In a way, Peterson is creating new wartime alliances that are more in line with his understanding of the Kulturkampf. But have little to do with the current line of conflict.

Admittedly, parts of the scenario are not entirely without plausibility. America is groaning under political and ideological struggles, cancel culture is an absurdity. But hard-fought open debate is part of the West, just as political activism is nothing new. Above all, Peterson projects his struggles onto Eastern Europe without hesitation. He thinks what he understands as western civil war is becoming the cause of an invasion.

Actually, his much-vaunted intellectual honesty should warn him to be careful. To make the Kremlin the defender of freedom of expression while the rest of the West (to which, incidentally, it historically accuses Russia) is supposed to stand for cancel culture is downright absurd.