Who is Jordan Peterson, the most divisive man on the internet?

Love him or loathe him, almost everyone has an opinion of Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson by now.

Love him or loathe him, almost everyone has an opinion of Jordan Peterson by now.

The Canadian psychologist, media personality and best-selling author of 12 Rules for Life has been described as either “the most influential public intellectual in the Western world”, or in the recent words of actress and filmmaker Olivia Wilde, “this insane man … who is this pseudo-intellectual hero to the incel community”.

While he has legions of devoted fans — by his own admission, mostly male — the 60-year-old self-help guru inspires equal amounts of online vitriol from the left over his perceived conservative views and outspoken opposition to “woke”, left-wing ideologies including transgenderism and feminism.

Dr Peterson, whose globetrotting career was derailed for a time due to a prescription drug addiction, can at times appear emotionally fragile, often breaking down in tears during interviews or speeches — much to the mockery of his detractors.

He most recently lost his composure in an episode of Piers Morgan Uncensored, after the host asked him to address Wilde’s claim that she based the villain in her film Don’t Worry Darling on the divisive psychologist.

“It’s very difficult to understand how demoralised people are, and certainly many young men are in that category,” Dr Peterson told Morgan.

“And you get these casual insults, these ‘incels’ – what does it mean? It’s like these men, they don’t know how to make themselves attractive to women – who are very picky and good for them. Women, like, be picky. That’s your gift, man. Demand high standards from your man. Fair enough. But all these men who are alienated it’s like, they’re lonesome and they don’t know what to do and everyone piles abuse on them.”

So who is Dr Peterson — arguably the most divisive man on the internet?

Jordan Peterson ahead of the release of his new book, Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life.

Viral fame

After starting his career at Harvard University, Dr Peterson returned to his native Canada to take up a position as a professor at the University of Toronto in 1998.

In addition to teaching students, conducting academic research and maintaining a clinical practice seeing patients, Dr Peterson first began to make media appearances in the early 2000s as an expert guest on TV shows.

He started a YouTube channel in 2013 to upload lectures and interview appearances — but it wasn’t until late 2016 that he shot to global fame after posting a series of videos criticising a proposed Canadian law, Bill C-16 — which made it illegal to refuse to refer to a transgender person by their preferred “gender pronoun”.

His videos quickly went viral, coming just months before the 2016 US election of Donald Trump at a time when the global culture wars were going into overdrive.

Dr Peterson, who describes himself as a “classic British liberal” rather than a conservative, argued that it was an issue of free speech and that the mandatory pronoun law amounted to “compelled speech”.

Rapidly gaining notoriety and amassing fans, he began posting more prolifically on YouTube and social media, before going on to publish 12 Rules for Life in 2018 and embarking on a global tour, including Australia.

To date, his YouTube lectures and videos have collectively amassed nearly 450 million views, while his appearances on popular podcasts like The Joe Rogan Experience have drawn huge audiences.

In early 2018, a fiery interview with UK TV host Cathy Newman on the gender pay gap went viral, and has now been viewed nearly 40 million times.

Jordan Peterson and daughter Mikhaila Peterson. Picture: Instagram

Drug addiction

When Dr Peterson arrived in Australia in February 2019 for his book tour he appeared at the top of his game — but within weeks, the rock star psychologist’s life would fall spectacularly apart.

He all but disappeared from public life soon after his Australian tour, with his lengthy absence sparking a flurry of speculation.

In September 2019, Dr Peterson’s daughter Mikhaila Peterson posted a confronting YouTube update revealing her father had been checked into rehab in New York seeking to get off the anti-anxiety drug clonazepam, saying he had begun taking the addictive medication to deal with stress from his wife’s battle with cancer.

“It was like being jabbed with something like a cattle prod, something electric, sharp, non-stop, for all the hours I was awake,” Dr Peterson would later recount, describing his withdrawal-induced akathisia — a condition which can cause restlessness, mental distress and an inability to sit still.

The news of his drug usage and health battle came as a shock to fans.

Things took an even darker turn in early 2020, when Dr Peterson sought alternative treatment for benzodiazepine dependence in a Russian hospital after what Mikhaila claimed was repeated misdiagnosis in North American hospitals.

Dr Peterson came down with pneumonia and was put into an induced coma for eight days in a Moscow hospital, according to Canada’s National Post. He began to recover, moving to a clinic in Florida and then Belgrade – before being struck down by Covid.

“He nearly died several times,” Mikhaila said.

In an interview with his daughter in June 2020, Dr Peterson discussed his difficult road to recovery — and freely acknowledged the effect on his image, describing a drug dependence as “ethically questionable”.

“Because you think, well, the person obviously made some errors in choice that contributed to this,” he said.

“Like, why would anyone take anything I say seriously?”

Jordan Peterson ‘nearly died several times’. Source: YouTube

Return to public

He returned to Canada in October 2020, telling YouTube viewers he hoped to “return to something resembling a normal life”.

Last year he released his follow-up book, Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life, and officially resigned from the University of Toronto, becoming an emeritus professor.

In July this year Dr Peterson announced he had joined conservative media company The Daily Wire to produce content for its subscription service DailyWire+.

“The plan is to build a multimedia empire offering services on the philosophical, educational, journalistic and entertainment fronts, including movies, TV shows and media for children,” he said in the announcement.

“An empire that will not fall prey to the woke authoritarianism that has become increasingly mandatory in so many places.”

He is scheduled to return to Australia in November for his Beyond Order book tour, with shows in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.

“Following his hugely successful, sold-out 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos tour in 2019, the new show will expand on previous discussions and feature revolutionary talks on overcoming life‘s biggest obstacles, how to improve oneself, the psychology of religion and mythology, and much more,” the description reads.

Originally published as Who is Jordan Peterson, the most divisive man on the internet?