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Jordan Peterson is back. The Canadian professor of psychology who is one of the worlds leading intellectuals has recovered from a coma that resulted from his severe dependence on sedatives, which nearly killed him. His new book Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life has just been released, and he seems set to resume a public career that made him famous and wealthy. The left has a not-so-subtle message for Peterson upon his resurrection: Watch your back.

Last year, an article called What Happened to Jordan Peterson? appeared in the New Republic. Were it not for an article in the Atlantic this week, it would barely be worth mentioning in its substance. In it, the author attempts to explain how Peterson wound up in a coma in Russia. She fully admits she has no actual idea, but that does not stop her from her guesswork or to mock the supposed guru of self-restraint for his condition.

The article is reminiscent of the endless parade of psychologists and psychoanalysts on certain cable news networks who opined for years about the perilous state of Donald Trumps mental health. In both examples, what is amazing is that any doctor would go on the record regarding such matters without so much as examining the patient. It is also worth noting that those same cable networks and publications not only ignore the regular mental and physical lapses of Joe Biden but treat them as little more than grandfatherly charm.

It is the second, more recent piece, also titled What Happened To Jordan Peterson, by feminist scribe Helen Lewis whose famous GQ interview with Peterson in 2018 garnered more than 26 million views on YouTube in the Atlantic that really sheds light on the message the progressive media is sending to Peterson. That message is that should he get back in the public intellectual game, there will be a huge target on him. But that of course is nothing new.

Lewis invents a kind of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde out of the Canadian professor. On the one hand, he is a thoughtful professor who should know his small place in the ivory tower. On the other, he is a contemptible anti-feminist culture warrior. She writes:

[T]he relentless demands of modern celebrity more content, more access, more authenticity were already tearing the psychologists public persona in two. One Peterson was the father figure beloved by the normie readers of 12 Rules, who stood in long lines to hear him speak and left touching messages on internet forums, testifying that he had turned their lives around. The other Peterson was a fearsome debater, the gladiator who crowed Gotcha! at the British television interviewer Cathy Newman.

There is a reason that Lewis insists on creating these two Petersons. The latter is absolutely key to the straw man she creates to prove her thesis that Petersons medical condition was a direct result of his desire for fame and fortune. She is desperate for his true disease to be not dependence, but hubris. At no point does she seriously entertain the possibility that the unhinged, often personal attacks launched against Peterson by progressives after his rise to fame played any role whatsoever in his condition. It is of course quite possible that it did not, but in an article full of guesswork, it is a possibility no fair-minded person could ignore.

The fundamental flaw in Lewiss piece is in separating Petersons scholarly work from his role as a public intellectual dealing with pressing issues of the day. She describes in detail how he got in hot water for refusing to use transgender pronouns and for arguing that men and women do and should play different societal roles. He has also been bitterly attacked for his disbelief in the concept of white privilege.

That Lewis thinks these positions exist somehow outside of his more scholarly work betrays how little she understands him or his appeal. His earliest YouTube success in 2017 was a series of lectures on the Bible, and what its stories can tell us about the modern condition. In the vein of Carl Jung or Joseph Campbell, Peterson has this strange notion that ancient stories actually matter, that they are guideposts left to us as an inheritance.

Far from being separate from his culture war battles, his work in bringing the tales of old into modern importance are of a piece with it. In both, he preaches that we are in fact constrained by reality, that it is not simply a mutable plastic we can form to our will. That is ultimately the message that so many, including but not limited to struggling young men, found so appealing and helpful.

For his trouble, he was accused, as Lewis acknowledges, of being some father figure of the alt-right, a Nazi-creating machine leading men astray in dangerous ways. This was always nonsense. But it did give cover for screed after screed decrying the negative influence and personal flaws of Peterson. But what was the left really attacking? What were they so upset by in his work? Here we must go back to Lewiss false dichotomy.

It was not his positions on hot-button issues that truly angered the left; it was the root of them: his belief that the Bible, mythology, and the Western tradition still have lessons to teach us. For progressives, these stories must be silenced, or at least contextualized in a way that shows how little they apply to todays world in which we can all be pretty unicorns if we so choose. It is Petersons attacks on postmodernism and particularly Marxism, both of which erode the stories of our ancestors that the left cannot abide, that is poison to their project.

And so the anti-Peterson articles have begun to flow like water. They are a threat, make no mistake. If Peterson will just shut up, go back to teaching, and call people by their chosen pronouns, he will be left alone. If not, if he dares take to the public square, the denunciations will continue. And if that harms his mental health, so be it. He is just that dangerous, they can justify doing harm to protect their precious shibboleths.

But we can hope he doesnt slink away. His contributions to discourse, the causes of freedom, and to our connection to ancient humanity are already enough to mark a great career. His once-controversial positions have become more mainstream; others have taken up the mantle. But he is not shy, and we should not be blamed for desiring more of his wisdom.

Jordan Peterson is back. We dont know exactly what that will look like beyond one feature we already see: The progressive media will resume their vendetta against him, without care regarding the man himself. It is shameless, and it is dishonest. But it also exactly what progressives do when they cant win an argument on the merits. For now, all we can do is wait and see and wish him well. It is nice to have him back.

David Marcus is a New York-based writer. Follow him on Twitter, @BlueBoxDave.

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Jordan Peterson Was A Victim Of Vicious Critics And He Still Is - The Federalist

Men Who Hate Women: From Incels to Pickup Artists; The Truth About Extreme Misogyny and How It Affects Us All

By Laura Bates

Sourcebooks ; $28.99 ; 352pp

Theres an ideology thats spreading via the internet, leading to terrorist attacks in America. It existed before the internet of course, but the past decade has seen it spread rapidly through mobile social media, growing in both breadth and virulence. Of course for an ideology to convince a score of men to commit mass murder in suicide attacks on the U.S. mainland you would expect there to be a sizeable number of less fanatical supporters. And that is indeed the case. Anyone who doubts the mass influence of this ideology only has to look at the ways in which mainstream politicians have mouthed support for its basic tenets.

Laura Bates new book Men Who Hate Women traces the overlapping, intersecting and mutually informing networks of male supremacy that comprise the manosphere. Millions of boys and men in search of support for a myriad of problems are being greeted by toxic networks. Early mens rights organizations such as the National Organization for Men Against Sexism supported individuals struggle against outdated and bigoted definitions of masculinity like power, physical strength and domination that were making them unhappy and hurting the people around them. More recently, like cuckoos in the nest, MRAs (Mens Rights Activists) have appropriated the rhetoric for their particular brand of misogyny and thrown anyone opposed to male supremacy out of the manosphere.

Bates, a Cambridge-educated actress who experienced regular mistreatment at auditions, set up the Everyday Sexism project in 2012 to record the day-to-day sexisms that women suffer, from the minor to the egregious. In 2014 her best-selling book Everyday Sexism recounted her experience setting up the project and how it found resonance across the world. Men Who Hate Women deals with the emerging resistance she has encountered recently from more organized purveyors of disinformation and misinformation, from high schools through to national media. Although her personal experience is based in England, her data comes from across the English-speaking world and especially from the United States. Though much of the content is difficult to read, graphically shocking and violent, every parent and teacher in America needs to read the easily digestible ninth chapter Men Who Dont Know They Hate Women. In it Bates, describes how body-building networks, online gaming chats, Instagram and YouTube are being used by racists, misogynists and anti-Semites to inculcate middle school and high school students with bigoted norms.

One of the reasons that Men Who Hate Woman is so disturbing is the sheer scope of the hatred that it encompasses and the simplicity of Batess argument. She traces the arguments through the various flavors and tiers of the manosphere as they intersect and hook up to one another, beginning with understandably insecure 15-year-old boys (which is to say, basically, all 15-year-old boys) and ending with a pussy-grabbing president, via various types of self-promoting enablers like Steve Bannon and Jordan Peterson. But its even broader than that.

After the white supremacist marches in Charlottesville in 2017, James Fields Jr. deliberately drove his car into a crowd of anti-racist counter-protestors killing Heather Heyer. Subsequent reports noted his neo-Nazi links but few media reports in his case or in others note the connection to the manosphere. As he drove into the crowd Fields was chanting White sharia now.

While those who cast slurs at Mexicans or systematically disadvantage Blacks are not necessarily misogynists or antisemites they are all looking for someone to blame. In his 2018 Information Wars, Richard Stengel surmises that the weaponization of grievance is the unified field theory behind the rise of nationalism and right-wing strongmen. Where the American Dream and media-perfect lives meet the vicissitudes of an unforgiving world and harsh capitalism, disappointment lies. For people expecting an easy, fulfilled life but end up having to work hard for scraps, its easier to look to those who are plotting against you than to do the hard work of introspection or the even harder work of system analysis and reform.

In a quotation of unknown provenance that has been polished by the internet, When youre accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression. Privileged groups dont need to be treated with objective equality to feel like they are being oppressed any diminishment of power can lead to a vague feeling of lost prestige and discontent. Embracing nationalism and right-wing strongmen is a political way of siding with power and abdicating responsibility for social reform. On a personal level, siding with power is just agreeing that the people who traditionally have power men should be in even more control. Jobs and sex are owed to us by the world and the women who are stopping this need to be taken to task isolated, disempowered, enslaved, raped or killed, depending on the area of the manosphere.

Unsurprisingly the people happiest with the status quo being preserved and even enhanced are mostly men, mostly white, mostly middle-class and as far as we see for whole of the manosphere at the moment predominantly located in North America and the United Kingdom. And that includes the most fertile ground in which to seed righteous indignation young, insecure men.

Male supremacists believe they are entitled to sex and jobs and power. Women are stopping them having those, so they take up different strategies to compel them. In the crabbed, clubby, insecure jargon of the manosphere these angry boy-men can become part of self-reinforcing groups. These groups include incels (involuntary celibates), PUAs (pick up artists), MGTOW (men going their own way). Each of these communities employs casually brutal language whose use desensitizes users and dehumanizes women. Words matter. These groups frame the worldview of millions of men and even have visible influence, as particular chunks of jargon like white sharia emerge into public view

The manosphere is organic and heterogeneous but, in general, Incels are violently anti-women and anti-feminist, pick up artists are casually anti-women as a means of getting sex and the MGTOWS (mig-tow) believe that women are so dangerous that they should be avoided as much as possible. While reading Bates I used this simplifying taxonomy: the shoot em ups (kill them), the mess em ups (f with their bodies and heads), and the avoid ems (isolate and disempower). Also known as the Elliot Rodgers, the Donald Trumps and the Mike Pences.

Each of these echo chambers hurts women most but still hurts its members. Bates approvingly quotes a Pankaj Mishra review of Jordan Petersons 2018 12 Rules For Life: An Antidote to Chaos. In the New York Review of Books he says that Peterson is a disturbing symptom of the malaise to which he promises a cure. Bates takes this critique and goes further to excoriate the manosphere, showing that it is both a symptom and an ongoing cause of the malaise to which it promises to be a cure. Heres how it works.

From jobs to sex to almost anything, unhappiness can be blamed on women undermining classically sexist ideas of what it is to be manly and powerful. The manosphere ignores Macbeths attack on toxic masculinity I dare do all that may become a man; Who dares do more is none to quote, unquestioningly, a millennia of patriarchal images to reinforce its dubious claims. As men are encouraged and bullied to adopt increasingly rigid gender roles, treating the women in their personal and professional life badly, they become increasingly unhappy to which the only available answer is to blame women. The vicious cycle accelerates. There is power spinning off this spiral of hatred, insecurity, entitlement and sexual frustration, that is seductive for salesmen and politicians. Unscrupulous predators exploit millions of unhappy men ready to spend money and votes on snake oil misogynists.

By virtue of its appeal to a mass audience, the manosphere is a significant part of the hate-osphere. Through disinformation, misinformation, bullshitting and framing the hatosphere skews and pollutes social discourse, undermining trust and creating rifts sometimes for ideology, sometimes for the lulz. The manosphere teaches millions of men how to be effective parts of the hatosphere. Disinformation is the lies put out there by vested interests, like the Australian MRA claim that 21 fathers die from suicide a week. Misinformation is the arguably unwitting spread of those lies by supporters, media, social media, politicians. Bullshitting is the deployment of irony to take the edge off hateful comments to draw people in; Bates quotes Andrew Anglin, editor of the neo-Nazi publication Daily Stormer as saying, The unindoctrinated should not be able to tell if we are joking or not. Framing is talking about the wrong thing or using the wrong terms. The term alt-right is the wrong euphemism for a group of American neo-Nazis, and every bit as much their coinage as Proud Boys. Framing means having the wrong debate smearing or defending Holocaust survivor George Soros rather than discussing the rise of Americas extreme right; arguing about wolf-whistles or the possibility of fake rape accusations rather than Americas legal and social blindness to endemic sexual assault pointed out by the MeToo movement.

So far this millennium has provided the conditions for a perfect storm of grievance. Globalization policies have enriched the wealthiest few, stripped workers in rich countries of their jobs and, especially in the United States, of their power and labor rights. At the same time, the response of the American left has been to skirt the issue of deep economic inequity and to insist on an inadequate rhetoric of inclusion. Batess sobering book reminds us that we need a society to be proud of and communities committed to progress and improvement.

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The dangerous hate movement we need to talk about - Forward

Michelle Obama is knitting and thinking about retiring from public life

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press

March 11, 2021, 4:32 AM

2 min read

WASHINGTON -- Michelle Obama is knitting and thinking about retiring from public life.

The former first lady says in a new People magazine interview that she picked up knitting needles to pass time during the coronavirus pandemic. And now she's hooked.

Knitting is a forever proposition," she said. You dont master knitting, because once you make a scarf, theres the blanket. And once you do the blanket, youve got to do the hat, the socks.

She's working on her first crewneck sweater for her husband, former President Barack Obama.

Im figuring out how to make sleeves and a collar, she said. "I could go on about knitting!"

The former first lady also talks about how the pandemic helped her and her husband reclaim stolen moments" with Malia, 22, and Sasha, 19, who both returned home from college to quarantine with their parents at the family homes in Washington and Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.

Mrs. Obama also discusses what she says is the low-grade depression she experienced during the pandemic lockdowns and after George Floyd's killing by Minneapolis police last May, along with her shift away from high-impact exercise and what she wants out of retirement.

The woman whose buffed biceps and exercise workouts went viral during her time as first lady said she taught herself to be a better lap swimmer during quarantine because Im finding in my old age that the high-impact stuff I used to do doesnt work. Michelle Obama is 57.

Now that Malia and Sasha are independent, young adults, Mrs. Obama said she enjoys that their conversations have become more peer-oriented than they are mother-to-daughter.

Ive been telling my daughters Im moving towards retirement right now," she said, adding that she's choosing her projects and chasing summer. Her new Netflix childrens food show, Waffles + Mochi, premieres Tuesday, and the Obama Presidential Center is under construction in Chicago.

Barack and I never want to experience winter again, Mrs. Obama said. "Were building the foundation for somebody else to continue the work so we can retire and be with each other, and Barack can golf too much, and I can tease him about golfing too much because hes got nothing else to do.

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Michelle Obama hooked on knitting, thinking about retirement - ABC News

"One of the most influential and iconic women of the 21st century."

by: Liz Chandler

NEW YORK On Monday, International Womens Day, it was announced that former first lady Michelle Obama will be inducted into the National Womens Hall of Fame (NWHF) later this year.

Advocate, author, lawyer, and 44th First Lady of the United Statesthe first Black person to serve in the roleMichelle Obama has emerged as one of the most influential and iconic women of the 21st century, states NWHFs website.

As first lady, Obama developed multiple advocacy groups. They include the Lets Move! program that aimed to end childhood obesity, the Joining Forces organization to support military veterans, the Reach Higher Initiative to help students better understand job opportunities, and Let Girls Learn, a program that supports girls education around the world.

In 2018, Obama released a memoir titled Becoming, selling over 15 million copies and winning the 2020 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album.

In 2020, she launched The Michelle Obama Podcast, which features the former First Lady alongside friends and loved ones as they dive into conversations about the relationships that make us who we are, according to NWHFs statement.

Obama and several other inductees will be honored at an induction ceremony on October 2, 2021, at the recently revitalized 1844 Seneca Knitting Mill building located in Seneca Falls, New York the birthplace of the American Womens Rights Movement.

Other inductees include author Octavia Butler, activist during the temperance movement Emily Howland and NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson.

The Hall, founded in 1968, has a mission to showcase great womeninspiring all, according to their website. The organization honors women of the past and the present, hoping to inspire women of the future.

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Michelle Obama to be inducted into the National Womens Hall of Fame this year - KSNF/KODE - FourStatesHomepage.com

"Over the past year, thepandemic has taken an immeasurable toll on families all across the country and upended everyone's lives," said President Barack Obama. "Michelle and I got vaccinated against COVID-19 because we know it's the best way to get the country back up and running againand get us back to the moments we miss. We hope every American will do the same and get a vaccine as soon as it's available to them. It could save your life."

"Laura and I are grateful for the dedicated scientists and researchers who enabled safe and effective vaccines to be developed so quickly. As the country moves toward recovery and renewal, we look forward to seeing our families, friends, and even a baseball game. We hope everyone joins us in getting a vaccine when it's available to them," said President George W. Bush.

"America has always been at its best when we are looking out for one another and pulling together in common cause. Now, with the development of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines,we have the chance to rise to the moment again," said President Bill Clinton. "I encourage every American to get vaccinated as soon as it becomes available to youand to feel confident, as Hillary and I did when we got ours, that it will protect you and your loved ones, and bring us all one step closer to ending this pandemic."

"Rosalynn and I are very happy to be vaccinated so, together with other public health measures, we can get back to church, see our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and eventually be active in our community again. I encourage everyone to get a vaccine when it's their turn," said President Jimmy Carter.

VIDEO: Former Presidents and COVID-19 Vaccine Facts | COVID-19 Vaccine Education Initiative | Ad Council

This project began in December 2020 and is being released as vaccines are becoming available to more Americans. The first of the PSAs, developed pro bono by creative agency Group SJR, aims to educate and empower Americans with information about the COVID-19 vaccines. In it, former Presidents Obama, Bush, Clinton and Carter discuss the moments they miss and are eager to get back to and features the First Ladies. The second PSA, developed pro bono by creative agency Pereira O'Dell, features Presidents Obama, Bush and Clinton speaking about the importance of COVID-19 vaccination, reminding Americans that the life-saving vaccines will protect individuals and those they love. In both PSAs, audiences are encouraged to visit GetVaccineAnswers.orgto get answers to the top questions Americans have about the COVID-19 vaccines.

"Today marks one year since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic and, while there is a light at the end of the tunnel, there's a lot of work still to be done to help our country recover. We're grateful to Presidents Obama, Bush, Clinton and Carter and the First Ladies for coming together in this historic moment to encourage Americans to get the most accurate information on the vaccines so they can make the right decisions for themselves and their families," said Lisa Sherman, President and CEO of the Ad Council.

According to Ad Council research fielded by Ipsos in February, approximately 40% of the American public remain undecided about getting a COVID-19 vaccination. Of that undecided population, only 56% say they feel confident they have enough information to guide their decision about getting a COVID-19 vaccination, compared to 96% of those already committed. Whether or not a vaccine is available to them, a majority of those undecided (73%) still want information to address their questions now, underlining the need for an urgent mass education initiative.

"In this pandemic, we need every American to help so that all Americans can recover," said former Republican Governor Dirk Kempthorne and former Democratic Governor Deval Patrick, Co-Chairs of the COVID Collaborative. "These former Presidents and First Ladies have come together to show that each of us, regardless of political party, has a stake in beating this virus."

The PSAs are a part of one of the largest public education campaigns in U.S. history and will appear nationwide in time and space donated by the media across TV and digital media platforms beginning this week.

The launch of this content follows the Ad Council and COVID Collaborative's recent launch of the "It's Up To You" initiative, which includes creative assets developed by Pereira O'Dell, JOY Collective, iHeartMedia, Group SJR, Values Partnerships and other partners to ensure the American public has the latest and most accurate information about the COVID-19 vaccines.

Vetted by experts at CDC, HHS and COVID Collaborative, content at GetVaccineAnswers.orgis available in seven languages (English, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Korean, Russian, Haitian Creole, and Vietnamese) and serves as an information hub to help consumers make an informed decision for themselves and their families about COVID-19 vaccination. Resources on the website will be continually updated as new information and data become available.

The Ad Council and COVID Collaborative have partnered to ensure public service messages reach deeply into local communities through trusted messengers and institutions. COVID Collaborative's dissemination network reaches millions of Americans through its many associations representing health, education and the economy and the diversity of the United States, supported by the Skoll Foundation, Allstate Foundation, Kaiser Permanente, Macy Foundation, Pure Edge, and Walton Family Foundation.

To date, the Ad Council has raised over $52 million for the communications effort to help turn the tide of the pandemic and provide critical education surrounding COVID-19 vaccination. Leading contributors to date include Amazon, Apple, Bank of America, Cisco, CVS Health, Facebook, General Motors, Google and YouTube, the Humana Foundation, NBCUniversal/Comcast, Salesforce, Verizon, Walgreens and Walmart. Significant contributions have also been provided by Adobe, America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the American Heart Association, the American Medical Association, BNY Mellon, Business Roundtable, Citi, Ford Motor Company, Honeywell, JPMorgan Chase, the New York Life Foundation, Stanley Black & Decker, Synchrony, Target, Unilever, Wells Fargo and ViacomCBS.

Since the pandemic was declared in March 2020, the Ad Council has mobilizedthe industry to launch an unprecedented, multi-pronged communications effort to combat COVID-19. To date, the Ad Council's COVID-19 response efforts have resulted in 47 billion impressions, $445 million in donated media value, and nearly 33 million visits to Coronavirus.gov.

The Ad Council

The Ad Council has a long history of creating life-saving public service communications in times of national crisis, starting in the organization's earliest days during World War II to September 11th and natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy. Its deep relationships with media outlets, the creative community, issue experts and government leaders make the organization uniquely poised to quickly distribute life-saving information to millions of Americans.

The Ad Council is where creativity and causes converge. The non-profit organization brings together the most creative minds in advertising, media, technology and marketing to address many of the nation's most important causes. The Ad Council has created many of the most iconic campaigns in advertising history. Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Drunk. Smokey Bear. Love Has No Labels.

The Ad Council's innovative social good campaigns raise awareness, inspire action and save lives. To learn more, visitAdCouncil.org, follow the Ad Council's communities onFacebookandTwitter and view the creative onYouTube.

COVID Collaborative

COVID Collaborative is a national assembly of experts, leaders and institutions in health,education and the economy and associations representing the diversity of the country to turn the tide on the pandemic by supporting federal, state and local COVID-19 response efforts.

The COVID Collaborative is co-chaired by former Governor and U.S. Senator Dirk Kempthorne (R-ID) and former Governor Deval Patrick (D-MA) and led by CEO John Bridgeland and President Gary Edson. COVID Collaborative includes expertise from across Republican and Democratic administrations at the federal, state and local levels, including former FDA commissioners, CDC directors, and U.S. surgeon generals; former U.S. secretaries of Education, Homeland Security and Health and Human Services; leading public health experts and institutions that span the country; the Business Roundtable, National Association of Manufacturers and U.S. Chamber of Commerce; the NAACP,UnidosUSand the National Congress of American Indians; the Skoll Foundation, Allstate Foundation and The Rockefeller Foundation; and associations representing those on the front lines, from the American Public Health Association, Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, andVaccinateYourFamily to the Council of Chief State School Officers, Chiefs for Change, and the Council of the Great City Schools.

SOURCE The Ad Council

http://www.adcouncil.org

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Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter and First Ladies Michelle Obama, Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton, and Rosalynn...