Jordan Peterson is facing backlash for attacking people who declare ‘Christ is King’ and suggesting that they are ‘psychopathic’ and ‘wolves in sheep’s clothing.’
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(LifeSiteNews) -- Candace Owens and others are pushing back against Jordan Peterson for comments he made this week that appear to be part of a larger strategy to discredit conservatives who promote “Christ is King” by claiming they are psychologically disturbed.
“This is indistinguishable from the time when the 'COVID experts' produced baseless reports claiming that those who refused to get the vaccine or stay at home were extremists who suffered from psychopathic tendencies. Trust the experts, guys! Anyways, Christ IS King,” Owens said Wednesday on X.
Peterson is widely known across the U.S. and his native Canada. While his growth in popularity over the past seven years is largely due to his attacks on the woke left, Peterson has shifted his focus in recent months to policing political speech on the conservative right.
Peterson appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience and on Sean Hannity’s Fox News program this week to promote his new theory, which he is calling “political psychopathology.”
On the Rogan show, Peterson claimed that “psychopathic types” are starting to “come up on the right.” These people “go to where the power is, adopt those ideas, and put themselves at the forefront. But the ideas are completely irrelevant.”
Peterson then said these people are “playing the role of the Pharisees – the modern version – using God’s name in vain as they proclaim moral virtue.” But he added that “doesn’t matter if it’s right or left, Christian, Jewish, or Islamic, they invade the idea space and use those ideas as false weapons to advance their narcissistic advantage.”
Peterson provided even sharper comments while on Hannity.
Without naming names, Peterson said the political influencers who possess these traits are “Machiavellian” and “use their language to manipulate” others while also seeking “unearned social status and reputation.” They are “free of empathy … parasitical … and sadistic,” he added.
Peterson then delivered his most nerve-striking remarks.
“We did a report … on (the) use of ‘Christ as King’ as a manipulative strategy by bad actors hypothetically on the right … they’re wolves in sheep’s clothing.”
Those remarks, coupled with his Rogan appearance, set off a flurry of criticisms by Owens, influencer Mike Cernovich, and many others who quickly recognized that they were an attempt to cancel them with Soviet-era tactics.
“Jordan Peterson … wants to tie Christ is King to sociopathy and terrorism. This man is working for the demons. That cannot be doubted now,” Cernovich remarked.
He also noted that in the USSR “psychiatry was turned into a tool of repression.”
X user John Krawczyk likewise said that “labeling free thinkers as mentally unstable is the oldest trick in the authoritarian playbook. First, they pathologize dissent — then they criminalize it. They don’t fear chaos. They fear those who see through it.”
To which Owens replied, “Bingo. Jordan can take himself back to Trudeau’s Canada with this mindset. Americans will never go for it.”
Other social media users were even more pointed in their critiques. Culture Wars founder E. Michael Jones argued that Peterson, who has expressed his full support for Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is being used as a tool by Zionist forces who want to shut down “Christ is King” messaging.
“Jordan Peterson earns the money the Daily Wire is paying him to act as their Shabbos Goy, warning the world about the dangers of ‘anti-Semitism,’ which he traces to psychological problems instead of the obvious cause, which is Jewish behavior, as in genocide in Gaza. Remember when Peterson told Bibi to "give 'em hell'? Being complicit in genocide is a condition of employment at the Daily Wire,” Jones said on X.
Cernovich likewise drew attention to Peterson’s connections to Zionist and Jewish groups. He noted that the “report” he co-authored on Christ is King for the National Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) earlier this year is tied to the Anti-Defamation League.
“Jordan Peterson wrote his … ‘Christ is King’ report for NCRI. NCRI is an ADL partner. NCRI tracks ‘domestic terrorism.’ They support censoring Covid-19 vaccine skeptics. Jordan is working for pro-censorship groups now, including ones targeting MAHA,” Cernovich said.
Peterson’s daughter, Mikhaila, defended him on X by rejecting claims he is seeking to gate-keep others.
“‘Christ is King’ is great unless it’s used to virtue signal or disparage, which uses the Lord’s name in vain. Obviously, not everyone who uses it does that, but some definitely use it as a veil of piety. That’s what JBP’s pointing out. Duh,” she said.
LifeSite reported in March on the Network Contagion Research Institute’s study on Christ is King. The 20-page paper, titled “Thy Name in Vain: How Online Extremists Hijacked ‘Christ is King,'” alleges that Owens, Jack Posobiec, and other Catholic influencers weaponized the phrase and were using it in a hateful manner.
LifeSite found that the NCRI was established in 2018 by Joel Finkelstein, who worked for the Anti-Defamation League from 2018 until 2020. The ADL has consistently attacked Traditional Catholics and Biblical teaching as forms of "hate speech." The NCRI and the ADL partnered in 2019 to “look into how extremism and hate spread on social media.”
Mint News has reported that the NCRI received over $1 million from the Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC), a group that seeks to promote support for Israel at U.S. colleges. The ICC, in turn, is funded by the Jewish National Fund. Grayzone reporter Max Blumenthal also found that the NCRI included George Soros’ Open Society Foundation as an affiliate until it deleted that section from its website in 2021.
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