Controversial psychologist Jordan Peterson received two very different receptions this weekend while giving talks on his "Freedom of Speech" campus tour. Friday, March 17, he was shouted down at McMaster University, while Saturday the 18th he received ovations speaking at Western University. The talks did not attract extensive media attention; McMaster was covered by the Toronto Sun and the American ethnonationalist website Breitbart.com; the London Free Press ran a story about his appearance there. What little attention was paid tread familiar ground, insisting universities have become "Safe Spaces" where contentious "conservative" thinking is discouraged. However, the extent to which Peterson is a sincere "conservative" scholar likely deserves scrutiny.

Peterson rose to notoriety by making a series of protests against accommodating individuals non-gender conforming. Rather than being called him or her, these individuals prefer to be called they, zir, or zhe, among other terms. Peterson feels that being asked to accommodate such individuals is an infringement on his freedom of speech. To my knowledge, he has never addressed why it's his freedom to use the words "him" or "her" that ought to be prioritized, rather than his student's freedom to be addressed as they feel.

In a series of YouTube videos and interviews, Peterson has tied his objections to a conspiracy of Marxists taking residence in the Ontario premier's office. In an interview with the website C2C Journal, he suggests these Marxists will imprison anyone who finds themselves on the wrong side of a rampant culture war. His statements echo the hysteria of McCarthyism, when homosexuals were vilified as communist threats to the American way of life. Peterson never presents evidence of these claims, except legislation such as Bill C-16 and the Ontario Human Rights Code. The claims don't bear much credibility under even the most cursory scrutiny, from either academics or anyone with a passing familiarity with Canadian government.

At McMaster, Peterson was to be joined by a panel of scholars to discuss ideas of free speech. In the end, his co-panelists cancelled without clear explanation. Peterson and The Sun trumpeted this as another example of "liberal" academics refusing to engage with "conservative" ideas. However, Peterson is not presenting convincing academic arguments, conservative or otherwise. His assertion that we do not need to accommodate a minority group because he sees no value in doing so could be easily dismantled by any first-year philosophy student. Instead, I suspect Peterson is talking past an academic audience and seeking out a different crowd.

In his first anti-trans accommodation YouTube rant, Peterson mentions his Patreon webpage where individuals can make donations to his cause. He cites fears his employer, the University of Toronto, would suspend his tenured status and fire him, a fear that has yet to materialize. In December 2016, the UofT student newspaper The Varsity reported he was receiving $8,000 monthly in donations. Following his appearance at the Manning Centre Conference in February of this year, donations jumped to $21,000 monthly. Like right-wing provocateur Ezra Levant, Peterson has discovered that if one is willing to make cruel and dehumanizing statements about some small group of Canadians, there is money to be made in doing so. That Peterson holds academic credentials and a tenured position at one of Canada's most prestigious universities likely only increases the value of his brand among groups desperately craving a "conservative" presence in higher learning institutions.

I have trouble believing the sincerity of Jordan Peterson's claims of a Marxist infiltration or a pending culture war. He is an elite level scholar whose book, Maps of Meaning, references some of the most recognized philosophers of the Western scholarly tradition, yet he now makes arguments that would fail in an undergraduate term paper. He is sparse of evidence and high on hyperbolic rhetoric, willing to entertain and reinforce the fears of diversity held by some Canadians, and apparently is getting very wealthy in the process. From academics I have spoken with, it is clear he has chosen to follow the examples of polemicists like Ann Coulter and Tomi Lehren instead of engaging in thoughtful and informed debate. Jordan Peterson has traded his credibility among scholars for a fleeting bout of fame and fortune. For his sake, I hope it was worth it. For the sake of those affected by his lack of compassion and intolerance for diversity, and for those who are paying for his so called "profound psychological insights" I hope it ends soon.