Jordanetics: A Journey Into the Mind of Humanity's Greatest Thinker

by Vox Day

Jordan Peterson is believed by many to be the greatest thinker that humanity has ever known. He is Father Figure, Philosopher-King, and Prophet to the millions of young men who are his most fervent fans and followers. He is the central figure of the Intellectual Dark Web, an academic celebrity, and an unparalleled media phenomenon who has shattered all conceptions of what it means to be modern celebrity in the Internet Age. He has, by his own admission, thought thoughts that no man has ever thought before. He has dared to dream dreams that no man has ever dreamed before. Of course, Jordan Peterson also happens to be a narcissist, a charlatan, and an intellectual con man who doesn't even bother to learn the subjects upon which he lectures. He is a defender of free speech who silences other speakers, a fearless free-thinker who never hesitates to run away from debates, difficult questions, and controversial issues, a philosopher who rejects the conventional definition of truth, and a learned professor who has failed to read most of the great classics of the Western canon. He is, in short, a shameless and unrepentant fraud who lacks even a modicum of intellectual integrity. But is Jordan Peterson more than a mere fraud? Is he something more sinister, more unbalanced, and even more dangerous? In A Journey Into the Mind of Humanity's Greatest Thinker, political philosopher Vox Day delves deeply into the core philosophy that Jordan Peterson advocates in both his written works and his video lectures. In doing so, Day methodically builds a shocking case that will convince even the most skeptical Jordan Peterson supporter to reconsider both the man and his teachings.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Politics, Psychology

199 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 19, 2018

About the author

Theodore Beale does much of his writing under the pseudonym Vox Day. Three-time Hugo Award nominee Vox Day writes epic fantasy as well as non-fiction about religion, philosophy, and economics. His literary focus is military realism, historical verisimilitude, and plausible characters who represent the full spectrum of human behavior. He is a professional game designer who speaks four languages and a three-time Billboard top 40 recording artist.

He maintains a pair of popular blogs, Vox Popoli and Alpha Game, which between them average over 20 million annual pageviews. He is a Native American and his books have been translated into ten languages.

He is the Lead Editor of Castalia House, and is also, with Tom Kratman, the co-creator of the military science fiction anthology series, RIDING THE RED HORSE.

Reviews

[AIk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't finish, too much strawmanning.

[Carbonel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A convincing argument for Christians

Take Mr. Peterson's 12 Rules as they are and run with them. Good habits and sensible associative choices will serve you well. Best of all, they can be got for free from the Chapter title previews. Run, and run far away from Jordan Peterson's expansion and explication of his rules. They do not serve a healthy mind. Vox Day cuts through the roundabout-ation and allusive language, the faked citations and esoterica to expose Mr. Peterson's moral philosophy. It has more in common with Gnostic thelema than healthy advice.

The current version of title is plagued with minor grammatical errors (11/18) and references some of the author's pet topics: the social sexual hierarchy, nationalism, etc., but these are mere digressions from the central point. Mr. Peterson is not a mentally or spiritually healthy individual, and the sooner he abandons his dangerous notions of a fantasy balance between Good and Evil, the better. I wish the poor man well. Growing up and living in the moral and intellectual chaos of progressivism damages even people who have some anchor to reality.

[A · Rating 5 out of 5]

As Vox likes to say, the best rhetoric is that which points to and reveals the truth. And that is precisely what this book does. I have laughed more while reading "Jordanetics" than I have while reading in a very, very long time. The sheer absurdity of JP's statements when put together, the nonsensical lines of his which begin every chapter, and Vox's masterful writing show that our Emperor, the Hierarchical Lobster, has no clothes.

One may doubt that JP is actually a cult leader like Vox describes, but I would point to JP's new (paid) personality course of a prime example of cult behavior. Cults always draw in the sheep by offering free services, which lead to a cult of personality which venerates and deifies their leader. With such a Holy Soul, more knowledge is needed, of course, but advancing in the ranks of Wisdom requires some cash. And we see JP charging $90 ($50 off, guys!) for a 5 hour course claiming to benefit "anyone who is interested in improving their understanding of themselves or their ability to work with other people" (https://courses.jordanbpeterson.com/p...).

Boy oh boy, I can't wait to be an Alpha lobster!

PS: Vox actually has some very useful (12) rules for life at the end of the book. They are much simpler than JP's rules and actually (who would have guessed?!) follow their subject title.

[Timothy Nichols · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unlike Vox’s earlier work SJWs Always Lie (which I heartily recommend), Jordanetics has an unacceptable signal/noise ratio. Vox and Peterson are co-belligerents inn the cultural war against key tenets of progressivism, but they disagree on major issues of race and tactics, at the very least. And Vox is annoyed about it.
Peterson has some very real failings, and Vox pegged some of them in the opening chapters of this book. There may be more in the later chapters, but I doubt I’ll ever get to them to find out.
There’s just too much useless verbiage and too much hermeneutical ill will going on here, and I don’t have time for that. (And a goodly chunk of Vox’s objections to Peterson are founded on his own tribalist outlook on things, which is a spiritual poison of its own.) Vox would be well served to hand this off to an editor with the goal of cutting it down to half or a third of the existing word count. A tightly argued guide to Peterson’s key failings would be a worthwhile read, but this isn’t it.

[Owlseyes]

Devastating, caustic analysis. I feel pity for doctor Peterson.

But by starting to compare Jordan Peterson with L. Ron Hubbard, is a so wrong move, from Vox Dei, I mean, Vox Day. Come on! There's no common ground whatsoever. Dianetics has nothing to do with Peterson.

Moreover, equating psychotherapy with astrology is utter nonsense.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Into something; falls short.

Day clearly IS onto something regarding Petersonian "word salad" and potentially surreptitious ambitions; however, one gets the feeling he is more or less rambling on, and oftentimes extending his inferences beyond plausible deniability. I say this as one who has been reigning in his once unquestioned loyalty and infatuation with Peterson. Also, there are far too many pages filled with YouTube conversations. This is a downfall, because Day employs them to show how the tide has shifted, gradually in his favor, in his critique of Peterson. For one maintaining he has no axe to grind, or jealousy for that matter (and I believe Day), this does not look good. In brief, mildly informative and certainly onto something, as I said before, this work still falls far short of what it could--nay, what it should...be.

[Vagabond of Letters, DLitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/10. Surprised.

This deserves a proper review, which I might have time for soon.

Better than I thought, not as good as I hoped. I'm still somewhat of a fan of Peterson, but Day makes points I've intuited and marshalls evidence for them. Nevertheless he sometimes goes too far or completely off-topic - I'd like to see Vox Day write a book about Vox Day. This should be read by all Peterson fans and haters alike.

[Joy]

I tried to read this book but it is too rambling. The author spliced everything with quotes and pages of it are random YouTube comments. Glad I didn't actually buy it.

[Barbie Whitefield · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 stars for...the effort of writing a book. I guess.
This guy Vox is waaay too smart to be so stupid and silly.
Right from the beginning I was skeptical because of the foreword by Milo Yiannopoulos. Fantastic way to assure your book will be taken seriously! (sarcasm) Although the foreword WAS really interesting...it's Milo. Who takes that guy seriously?
This book is literally a paranoid load of articulated hot garbage. The author clearly has a personal issue with Peterson, and Jews. Maybe the issue with Peterson is his non-issue with Jews. Anyway...
So much stretching and twisting, and cherry picking apart of had conversations. Many of which I'm guessing were taken out of context.
(I'm about to find out.)
Vox could have some valid "call outs" on Peterson scattered throughout with his incorrect statistical claims, but most of his interpretations were hard to take seriously, or just plain ridiculous.
I wouldn't have finished this if I hadn't already decided (for a reason) that I would finish if I started it.
I'm Peterson fan, from his lectures. I thought it would be interesting to read the most popular hit peice on Peterson's book "12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos" before reading IT.
If I change my mind after 12 rules, I'll come back and update my review. I seriously doubt I'm going to feel a, L Ron Hubbard, Occultism, or globalist "One World Order Agenda" vibe from Peterson's book after watching sooo many hours of lecture from the guy, but I've yet to read it. (I have read many of Peterson's articles, and the Essay on how to write an essay! That was phenomenal. Had me intensely intrigued until the end. No kidding. It's on his website.)
And Vox does claim his writings are COMPLETELY different from the lectures. (Vox also has youtube videos hating on Peterson that are tacky and borderline desperate.)
We'll see.
I'm just glad to be done with it. First chapter or 2 was interesting but it evolved into this ridiculous repetitive drag halfway through, and remained there.

[Howardstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a general and succinct review. The objective light in which Peterson was portrayed here was very helpful in clearing the messy cobwebs of his philosophy somewhat out of my mind, but definitely more helpful for a devout Jordanian. From reading Jordanetics I can report that the content is a very direct response to 12 Rules For Life, but connecting to other writings by Peterson, to his actions, and to intellectuals' views of him.

Many parts of it were genuinely hilarious, which is only in virtue of Day's bluntness and clarity. That's how laughable I find the more "sophisticated" areas of Peterson's "philosophy". 95% of the criticism is fully reasonable and far more than sufficient to deem the book a serious exposé. Jordanetics is consistently interesting to read from an intellectual standpoint and can aid the reader in assessing other internet "intellectuals" on the basis of not only their present speech, but that of their past, as well as their actions, if he understands how to criticize and judge objectively.

Prior to reading the book, I was a slight supporter of what he said regarding life, psychology, and society, as well as confident that he was a significant actor in the support for freedom. But it turns out that that's exactly what he is: an actor, acting as if his nonsensical dogma will lead humanity in a better direction. As later pointed out in the book, the oat seeds are very thoroughly mixed in with the tares-seeds, when sprouted, can induce great harm. It would be dishonest for me to say that there is no oat in his speech, but I will say that it is only there (in miniscule amounts) to be consumed so that the tares would also be consumed. I allude to his talk of freedom of speech and individualism as being the oat seeds, but it takes a devoutly principled and critical mind to only consume the oats and avoid the tares that are the ideas portrayed in 12 Rules For Life.

[James Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jarring read

The Kavanaugh tw*et was a shocker for me. I knew vaguely that Vox Day was negative before that but its occurrence was a real red flag. How could anyone not of the hard core left suggest throwing away a nominally constitutionalist Supreme Court appointment selected by a sitting president under constant attack to appease the unappeasable left in a country not his own? In particular, Dr. Jordan Peterson? What would come next? Did he not know? Vox Day has some insights. Though not yet having read the two books which informed in large part this analysis (though purchased), but having watched videos impressed with Peterson's apparent defenses and counterattacks against the latest antics of the feral left, I saw that Vox's analysis sheds light on the sudden rise, the meandering nature of presentation, the brooding, and other potentially unseen characteristics. What are the 12 Rules? Do the headers match the text or not? How close or far? With solid presentation, Vox tells the reader what, whether, and how, with some decent wordplay making it very readable and understandable. If you're a fan, you should read it. If you're afraid it will make you not a fan, you really should read it. What good is a message or system that cannot stand up to withering scrutiny? Vox tells us he read (and analyzed) the two books. Vox delivers the scrutiny with ample citation. Be not afraid. Read it.

[Boykie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always tried to look for "disconfirming" evidence or find opposing views. With the rise of Jordan Peterson, it was a bit surprising to see there was an opposing view to his works.

I've just had a quick once over and am intrigued enough to want to go over the book again but this time in a more detailed and focused manner.

Vox Day (Theodore Robert Beale) presents a logical breakdown of Jordan Petersons works. He systematically goes through Petersons "12 Rules For Life" and "Maps Of Meaning" and provides counter-arguments for the assertions Peterson makes.

I found his arguments to be solid, however, being a Peterson fan there was an element of dissonance which is why it would be worth going through the book again.

Well worth a read to get some "intellectual" exercise and to get exposure to an alternative viewpoint.

[Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

My impression of Vox Day after reading this is that he is just as narcissistic as Jordan Petermeme; this book is badly written and in need of an editor who would throw out pages at a time. Vox Day's analysis of Petermeme's character being pathetic and whackjob in equal measure has some amusing insights and he writes a few gems like, "The 12 Rules for Life is a murder mystery disguised as a self-help book and the intended victim is you." and, "The Third Principle of Jordanetics: Leave the wounded behind to die." Alas, this isn't enough to justify the time spent wading through copy pasted youtube comments (I wish I were joking), statistics, and Vox Day's propensity for drifting off subject to reach them to others.

[Philipp Hartmann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Vox Day is an interesting character. There are people who will question anything. And anyone. And even though to most human beings, they can be a massive pain in the ***, they are necessary to potentially pinpoint wrongdoing or intellectual dishonesty.
I really enjoyed reading The irrational atheist , which was a great scrutiny of the arguments brought forth by the four horsemen Hitchens, Dawkins, Dennet and Harris.
This book, however, is little more than a twohundred-page rant of a manifestly quarrelous person. Even though the author tries to inoculate the reader beforehand against the accusation that his motives may not be pure (envy or other potential reasons to smear someone), you can't help but think of them several times while progressing through the book. After all, who would write a whole book on someone they deem evil and dangerous, having listened to dozens of speeches and read 2 opuses of his declared enemy. That's waht you call obsessed, duh.

Throughout the whole thing, Day twists and turns Peterson's rules and puts words in his mouth to fit his narrative. Classic strawmanning. What's more, Day constantly accuses Peterson of hiding his true motives - while doing exactly that! Classic projection.

Why the 2 stars then? Firstly, because parts of the book are actually quite well-written. Secondly, because Day DOES show that some of Peterson's claims just cannot be true (for example that after having consumed some food deleterious to his organism, he was unable to sleep for a month).

Day criticizes that it is hard to pinpoint what exactly Peterson's rules mean, as they are so abstract. However, he glosses over the fact that Peterson also chooses analogies and examples that are applicable to a myriad of different individuals, therefore generalizing a lot. But Peterson does help people with his advice, demonstrably so. For some reason, Day just cannot stand this, ergo this book.

[José · Rating 2 out of 5]

full disclosure on two points:

1. Ive enjoyed some of Jordan Peterson's work.
2. I did not finish this book....here is why.

Chapter 3 was comprised of a youtube video transcript and some comments posted to it and Chapter 4 consisted of even more youtube comments. it was painfully boring to read. And that's just it, the book was dull.

Also, the criticisms he raises against Peterson in the first part of the book were mostly unimpressive. He did bring up some good points, but most of it was cherry-picking. I felt Milo provided a better critique in his forward than vox did in 5 chapters.

Im not against criticizing someone. And I was interested in seeing what a right-wing critique of Jordan Peterson would be like, but this was a huge letdown....

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thorough debunking of a popular charlatan

Vox pulls no punches as he goes chapter by chapter through Peterson's best selling "12 Rules for Life". If you're like me, you attempted to read (listen in my case) to 12 Rules and couldn't make sense of 90% of it. Thankfully, Vox put the time in to analyze the book and the results are nothing short of brutal. If you have doubts or confusion about Peterson, you owe it to yourself to read this book and see the truth. Highly recommended.

[RJ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Day will assert the intention of Petersons writings and builds upon these assertions to connect the synthetic dots that make it read as if it were a conspiracy theorist manifesto. I have no doubt Peterson has made some error in statistics he writes (Day obsesses on the IQ of the Jewish population) for example. However instead of attributing malice to Peterson it is much more likely he does not want to engage with those deep into a conspiracy theory that there is a Jewish cabal secretly ruling the world.

[Grant · Rating 2 out of 5]

Watching one grifter drop bombs on another grifter is normally a really fun experience and at times it is here too although Vox spends most of his time creating filler material surrounding how other people critiqued him for critiquing Peterson.

Whilst Theo isn't wrong at all times here that Peterson is nothing special, it's a lot of pot calling the kettle black that leads to a very drab read.

[Tyler Hummel · Rating 1 out of 5]

A vengeful rant by a disgruntled Alt-Righter who’s disdain for a flawed/well meaning pop-psychologist eludes me. I can respect people with sincere criticisms (many of his criticisms I share) but this qualifies as little more than character Assassination. He’s connecting the dots to make Dr. Peterson seem like a monster.

[Hank · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vi lyssnade nyligen klart på audiobokversionen av Vox Days sarkastiskt betitlade bok Jordanetics – A journey into the mind of humaity's greatest thinker. Detta verk är en kritik av Petersons böcker och beteende från ett kristet högerperspektiv.

Inledningsvis hävdar Vox Day att målgruppen för Petersons 12 rules for life är mentalt ostabila, kroniskt deprimerade, anti-dep ätande, narcissistiska beta-hanar med ett desperat behov av en fadersfigur, vilket märkligt nog är en beskrivning som passar väldigt väl in på Peterson själv. Vox Day menar vidare att 12 rules for life är en självhjälpsbok för Peterson själv som han sedan lanserat som en självhjälpsbok för alla män (vilket för oss framstår som aningen narcissistiskt).

Så här sammanfattar vi Vox Days huvudsakliga kritik av Peterson:

Faktumet att Peterson har en lång historia av mental ohälsa, kronisk depression och ett bruk/missbruk av anti-depressiva medel.
Hans tvivelaktiga förhållande till sanningen.
Hans medgiva konflikträdsla.
Hans förkärlek till krångliga och vaga ordsallader som medvetet lämnas vidöppna för att låta läsaren tolka in det han vill tolka in.
Hans begränsade kunskaper inom politik och statistik.
Hans inblandning med FN och agenda 2030.
Hans kärlek till individualism och hans ogillande av ”kollektivism” och ingruppspreferens, vilket är ironiskt med tanke på vilka som betalar Petersons lön (se bilden).

Fortsättningsvis hävdar författaren att Peterson agerar grindvakt genom att hålla unga män borta från religion/spiritualitet, från att organisera sig på ett produktivt och högerorienterat sätt samt att han försöker leda bort unga män från att identifiera sig med sin egen grupp samtidigt som han hyllar sin nuvarande chefs (och deras grupps) starka ingruppspreferens. Vidare påstår Vox Day att Peterson har blivit framlyft av media för att kunna anta grindvakts-positionen som vi nämnde här ovan.

“I do not know Jordan Peterson, but his incorrect and deceitful arguments, and his unfair and unjustified attacks on his critics, show him to be an inept and integrity-challenged coward who lacks a genuine commitment to the truth. The combination of his sudden success with his observable intellectual ineptitude suggests that he has been elevated by the mainstream media in order to provide a harmless, toothless, and non-Christian alternative to the failed conservative movement of William F. Buckley and the failed neoconservative movement of Bill Kristol and Ben Shapiro.”

För att illustrera poängen gällande varför en person blir framlyften av media, kan vi ta Greta Thunberg som ett exempel. Varför blev hon viral/framlyften? Jo för att regimen vill ha en talesman (eller I det här fallet ett talesbarn) som framstår som neutral och som kan predika de budskap som regimen vill ha ut till allmänheten på ett sätt som framstår som organiskt. Ergo Petersson virala genombrott. Om läsaren fortfarande tvivlar på hur detta fungerar fråga då dig själv varför ingen som kritiserat massinvandringen (för att inte tala om vilka som ligger bakom den) blev viral/framlyften under de senaste 15 åren.

Avslutningsvis påstår vi att det är möjligt att argumentera för att Vox Days bok, passande nog, fungerar som ett motgift för Petersons idéer. Vi fann denna bok intressant, klargörande och väldokumenterad. Så vi rekommenderar den till er som tvivlar lite på Peterson och hans idéer men inte riktigt kan sätta fingret på vad som känns fel.

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think a glaring issue with JBP, which came to be apparent during the Sam Harris debate, is that he's a "fake darwinian". The other IDW guys are, too, but this is a review of Jordanetics.

He affects this appearance of being a darwinian (Dewey inspired?) and churns out what should be considered catastrophic failures to reason out of that perspective. Denying the role of relatedness in social interaction is a colossal error. Reading the Selfish Gene should be enough to convey the problem with that. If you're a grown up, you can also read Evolution of Cooperation. That obviously wasn't included, since VD isn't into evolution, but it had to be said about a guy who said that actual evolutionary thinkers are insufficiently darwinian.

Anyways,

I think an issue with the criticism that Vox offers here is that Jordan goes ALL IN on the affordances of extemporaneous speaking. There's no plan. You get a collection of thoughts and associations on topics. The necessary formatting to discern his positions from others is also non-extant. He detects value in a position, conveys that there's value there. He might convey an opposing position, or his own, but none of that necessarily occurs or is highlighted. He also sprinkles tidbits across hours of content, which makes it hard to know what he thinks - another luxury of extemporaneous presentations.

Some criticisms are Ill fitting by a consequence of that. Maybe. Again. Who knows. It can't be discerned through his obfuscations.

There's also something about the influence of Darwin on pragmatism, coupled together with Jung, that seems intellectually insidious. Like it's this constellation of goop that also has a great intellectual barrier to seriously contesting through its obscure nature and what it would probably entail

[John Schneider · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vox Day makes a strong case that Jordan Peterson is insane, a con man, or a cult leader in this no-holds barred book. As many other comments have stated, it is not so much the strength of Vox’s analysis as its superiority over Peterson’s word! For a man that selects his words “very carefully,” Peterson is revealed to be intentionally vague and misleading. I must admit that Vox’s claim that Peterson is esoteric and occult is not proven - it is merely the best possible explanation. Anyone interested in Peterson ought to read this book before jumping into the “word salad” that is Peterson’s writing.

[Person · Rating 5 out of 5]

A necessary rebuttal

I will need to return to edit more into the review. For now , I will share some details that stood out to me.
1. It was a mistake for Milo's intro to insinuate that Peterson has inappropriate feelings for his daughter. It puts the reader off early. Vox is more effective at quoting Peterson's actual creepy writing about his relatives.
2. Vox spends too much time quoting YouTube comments to establish what Peterson's followers are like. I, as a reader, naturally discount internet comments. This method of establishing his point does not look professional. Vox is much better when responding to Peterson's actual writing.

[Mario · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is a critique of some of Peterson's works. A few things later in the book might be slightly far fetched. That being said, the book gives some major criticisms which are actually valid!
While many of the outrageous writings in Peterson's Maps of Meaning have been previously brought to light by the internets, Beale has done a very good job at laying them out here, and has brought to the reader's attention some oddities in Peterson's 12 Rules for Life.
Whether you're for or against Peterson, this book is well worth the read, especially if you've read Peterson's "12 Rules For Life" prior to reading this one.

[Петър Стойков · Rating 1 out of 5]

Джордан Питърсън безспорно има своите кусури и те хич не са малко. Основните му критици са от ляво и затова щеше да ми е интересно да прочета някаква смислена критика на философията му отдясно. За съжаление авторът на настоящата книга нито е чел Дж.П. нито го е разбрал, поради което аргументите му се състоят в измисляне на някаква теза, приписването й на Питърсън и после разгромяването й.

[Blake Hickmon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vital read

Thank you Vox! Like many others I was initially excited by JPs apparent SJW resistance. The anecdotal stories of improvement from the 12 rules was encouraging to see. I read through chapter 9 and couldn't continue due to an amorphous sense of heaviness. Your book has defined what I was unable to express. Thanks so much!
See you on the Darkstream👍

[Donald Wheeler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harsh but needed assessment of a modern fraud

Vox Day sums up all of what makes JBP’s new age gnosticism both pernicious and subversive, in the worst sense. He provides clear examples of the double-talk and double-think that Peterson indulges in, and many elucidations of the source material, enough for any wannabe ‘whataboutist’.

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I may re-read this book after reading Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules for Life, though I did think that the author made some valid critiques of his subject. I would, however, have to reserve judgment on several of his points for the time being.

[Pía López Copetti · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book could have been much more enjoyable if the author didn't spend half his writing in bantering. Okay, we get it, Jordan B. Peterson is a charlatan, now can we move on to exposing facts without posing him as the devil himself every two phrases?

[Bill Hennessy · Rating 5 out of 5]

If there are any lobster loyalists out there, throw this book at them and pray they’ll read it. So many young men were put under a spell with Peterson (myself included) but this book does an excellent job at exploiting this Canadian charlatan for the fraud he is.