NOTE: Rubin has really disappointed me over the years. I certainly do not support him anymore!
Welcome to TaraElla Daily News, where we build a centrist classical liberal awareness, one day at a time, one issue at a time. If you are interested in real intellectual discussions about issues, you've come to the right place, and I highly recommend subscribing. Today, we are going to look at the accusations by progressives of Dave Rubin and Jordan Peterson of having a right-wing bias, contrary to their stated classical liberal positions. If you watch my show, you'll know that I think highly of both of them, and I certainly don't think they are very biased. But since this show is about looking at what other people say in good faith, I will take a deeper look at what the Left is saying here.
Is Jordan Peterson Right-wing?
As far as I know, Jordan Peterson has not identified as right-wing, nor given any indication that he is right-wing. But many progressives have identified issues where they believe he is right-wing. Some of the examples they give have no ground at all. For example, there is no evidence that Jordan Peterson is sexist, homophobic, transphobic. I mean, having an opinion on the gender pay gap isn't sexist, it's just having an opinion. Furthermore, whenever people say that Peterson is transphobic, I can just point them to his very respectful discussion with Theryn Meyer back in 2016. Surely, I have critiqued some of Peterson's arguments as not being entirely classical liberal, in the article I wrote about him back in April. I guess this is one of several points of disagreements I have with him. But overall, he appears to be a very reasonable man, and he's certainly not very right wing. From what I observed, it appears that many progressives' misunderstanding of Peterson comes from an incompatibility of language. When Peterson says one thing, progressives often think of something else. As with a lot of modern politics, language has come to divide us, and this is something I wish to fix.
Where I particularly agree with Jordan Peterson is that there is a place for left-wing politics, as well as right-wing politics, in society. He sees it as a balance between maintaining order, and compassion for those at the bottom of hierarchies, if I understand it correctly. I'm personally not into the order vs chaos way of thinking, but one thing I repeatedly explore on this show is how our political inclinations are in-born and are the result of adapative Darwinian evolution. I believe in bringing people with different inclinations together, because having people with different inclinations work together on issues will give us the best, balanced outcome, as intended by our evolutionary programming. Progressives keep us adaptive, while conservatives prevent dangerous change. Classical liberalism gives a voice to both, and provides a framework to let rational debate happen.
Is Dave Rubin Biased?
We'll have a look at the case of Dave Rubin now. His show, The Rubin Report, is all about interviewing people with different views on things, both right-wing and left-wing people. His style is to let his guests speak, and he usually doesn't challenge them much. Rubin and his fans see the show primarily as a platform where ideas can be discussed, where people with different opinions can share them with the world. On the other hand, The Left has been accusing him of letting people on the far-right speak, without challenging them too much.
Does Rubin have a responsibility to challenge his guests more vigorously? I guess not, because it is his show, and he can do whatever he likes. On the other hand, I guess we would benefit from having other platforms where ideas are not just broadcasted, but also actively debated. Rational debate and the exchange of ideas is another important part of practising classical liberalism. And this is my approach. I mean, I don't have a big enough platform to interview people like Rubin, but if I did, I would do more to bring the opposing sides together for vigorous debate. This is what I am already trying to do with my show here, in fact. Arguments from conservatives, SJWs, socialists, I deal with all of them fairly.
So, in conclusion, it is unreasonable to accuse Rubin of bias, just because he doesn't challenge his guests much. On the other hand, we would benefit from having maybe other platforms where ideas are in fact contrasted and challenged. I'm personally interested in hosting one such platform, if I ever get the opportunity to.
