Sometimes truth prevails. In a media environment dominated by political correctness, a vehicle for a rare dose of reason was this week provided by the unlikeliest of sources: the culturally Marxist social justice warriors on Channel4 News. In a move that must subsequently have caused consternation across the editorial team, the channel chose to live broadcast journalist Cathy Newman’s interview with Professor Jordan Peterson, the Canadian psychologist known for his refusal to bow to Canada’s Bill C-16, which makes use of a person’s preferred gender pronoun a legal requirement. The interview itself is an exercise in self control and politeness from Peterson, as Newman desperately tries to misrepresent his positions to portrait him as the villain she purports him to be. Peterson had facts, Newman only had slogans and prejudices.
This was a duel of dispassionate reason form Peterson versus emotional righteousness from Newman. It was a frontal attack on the cultural hegemony the authoritarian liberal elite has established; a dose of reality in the face of the victimhood narrative, where the world is divided in oppressors and oppressed. Here was a proponent of reason, unapologetically refusing to kowtow to the PC narrative, live and uncensored on a British mainstream news programme; a rare chance to cheer, not shout at the television. It is compelling viewing – if you are into that kind of stuff. The youtube video of their exchange now has over 3.5 million views.
While the decision by a mainstream news outfit to provide an unedited platform for a right-wing non-PC view-point was surprising, the aftermath proved predictable. Claiming that ‘vicious threats’ were issued against Newman on social media by Peterson’s followers, Channel4 called in ‘security experts’. The liberal media closed ranks and started spinning the story to make the narrative about the victimization of Newman and draw attention away from the content of the interview and her spectacular intellectual defeat. A right-wing, white male making a victim of a woman; order has seemingly been restored in the PC universe.
One can legitimately suspect that this decoy is a deliberate attempt to salvage the PC narrative and part of a rescue mission to prevent similar occurrences in the future. The anointed liberal elite, petrified of challenges to their cultural hegemony, has been exposed: they have had the realization that Peterson is their intellectual superior and has reason and truth on his side thrown in their faces. Their strategy will presumably be to no-platform him. They will attempt to designate Peterson a ‘security threat’ based on the risk posed by his followers; hence the uproar about the alleged abuse suffered by Newman. There is precedence: a very similar fate befell Milo Yiannopoulos, the provocative right-wing commentator who faced cancellations of events when he was met with riots (by left-wing protestors) at US campuses.
Channel4 will have learned a lesson. The Peterson encounter exposed the sanctimonious news programme to the one thing their world view could not handle: reality. Intellectually, there was only going to be one winner. But one fears that the cultural authoritarians will succeed in their continued suppression of people like Peterson who, by rejecting cultural Marxism and postmodernism, has exposed themselves to the wrath of the PC elite. So go watch the interview (again) and enjoy the professors annihilation of the inept, slogan-shouting, sanctimonious, hypocritical Newman. It may be a while before we see a repeat.