Peterson challenged Žižek more than a year before their debate took place. But few commentators have picked up on who the official organisers of the debate were: a mysterious organisation under the name of Ralston College.

What, I hear you ask, is Ralston College? Well, technically speaking, Ralston College does not exist. This is where things get interesting.

Ralston College is supposed to be an opening-soon institute of higher education in Savannah. Its stated purpose is to combat the "rampant politicization" and "oppressive speech codes" of established universities. Its slogan, "sermo liber vita ipsa", means "free speech is life" in Latin. I am not joking.

The president of Ralston College is Stephen Blackwood, the quiet young man who moderated the Person-Žižek debate.

The only other notable thing Blackwood has done with his life, is moderate a debate between Peterson and fellow reactionary Roger Scruton, this time in Cambridge University. These two events, Peterson-Žižek and Peterson-Scruton, are the only two things that Ralston College has, to this day, actually done.

The next question is: why am I talking about Ralston College in the first place, if this institution does not even exist?

Well, Ralston College's main purpose, along with the promotion of Peterson, is to bring together like-minded white men. Among Ralston's Board of Visitors is one particularly influential white man: a little-known academic by the name of Douglas Hedley. Douglas Hedley is the Principal Investigator of a UK Arts and Humanities Research Council Grant. Which is to say, that he singlehandedly controls who among tens of PhD applicants in the UK receives funding.

Douglas Hedley's other main gig, is as Professor at the Faculty of Divinity of Cambridge University. The Faculty of Divinity of Cambridge University... why does that sound so familiar, I hear you wonder. Why, that is the very same place where Peterson received a fellowship not two months ago!

Which is very strange, when you think about it. Why would Peterson, who is, by profession, a psychologist, receive a fellowship in a Theology faculty?

This is, of course, eliding the fact that Peterson hasn't practiced clinical psychology in years, following ~ allegations ~ that he had behaved improperly towards multiple patients.

What's more, this fellowship at Cambridge University which he got through his friend Douglas Hedley, was rescinded within a week because the Cambridge Vice-Chancellor didn't want anything to do with the controversies Peterson would bring with him. (This particular bit of information is something I have gathered from direct sources, and not the official story on the matter.)

So, to summarise: every single job and accolade Peterson has ever obtained, including the debates he took part in, were things he was given by friends he had on the inside, and not things that he earned through merit. Every. Single. One.

@garfiald

@garfiald got it. neither does Jordan Peterson

@garfiald "Jordan Peterson" is just a really in-depth performance art piece

@garfiald bhexcuse me

@t54r4n1 yup, it's pretty wild

@garfiald Isn't there some kind relationship between Ralston and Quillette? Or am I thinking of something else?

@radicalrobit there probably is, I'll look into it

@garfiald because it's been involved despite its actual nonexistence

@garfiald he went to fuckin emory for fuckin religion. jfc. even i decided not to go to emory and i'm a dumbass

@garfiald blazing saddles voice: it's hedey.

@garfiald I mean, that's unsurprising

@garfiald quite frankly, cases of merit are probably rarer than hens teeth

@garfiald It's amazing how utterly unsurprising this is, even though I had never looked into him that much. Thanks for that thread!

@garfiald good content garf!! o7

@garfiald I didn't know anything about this guy before now other than he was some smug youtube brand, and now I know everything I need to. Thank you weird cat

@garfiald wow we stan a friday night educational post about Jordan Peterson

@garfiald This is probably why bigoted mediocre cis white guys love him. He represents their preferred career path of lazy unearned privilege built on violent exclusionary ideals.

@activationfxn @garfiald Yeah this is I think the most important question. JBP is very far from the only mediocre middle aged academic. WHY is it he who gets the big speaking gigs, and not some other cis white guy who, y'know, has published a readable book. There's so many reactionary profs out there, why's JBP special?

Part of it is probably a mix of random chance with the way capitalism hyper-feedbacks in stupid ways. But I think the fact that he doesn't actually do his ostensible job may be the outstanding factor. Think of John McCain, who got credit for being a war hero mostly by schmoozing with journalists, a task that required him to actively shirk his official duties.

Because JBP doesn't do clinical, doesn't publish, and apparently doesn't put any craftmanship into his teaching, he has ample time to suck up to the incredibly wealthy. And so far in the history of hierarchical societies, the best route to social mobility remains "sycophant."

@garfiald
So basically, Jordan Peterson represents every single thing that's wrong with academia. Gosh, just when I thought I couldn't dislike him more.

FYI, Cambridge's official statement about him was: "[Cambridge] is an inclusive environment and we expect all our staff and visitors to uphold our principles. There is no place here for anyone who cannot."

(Source: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/mar/20/cambridge-university-rescinds-jordan-peterson-invitation)

@InvaderXan oh yeah I have a lot more to say about the Cambridge aspect of things if you're interested, I have ~ insider sources ~

@garfiald
Yes please, I'm very curious to know how it all went down. All I know from what little I've heard is that a lot of people, staff and students alike, were... not pleased, shall we say.

@InvaderXan the single most important bit of context in order to understand the reception of Peterson at Cambridge is called Noah Carl. Noah Carl is a race scientist, and a fellow at Cambridge University. His appointment has, for the past 6 months, been the focus of a struggle between Cambridge institutions and its students. Protests against him have been spirited, and student protesters have received cease and desist letters from the University.

@InvaderXan The struggle has been between a decision which the Cambridge establishment does not want to back down from, and widespread public and student discontent with it. This turbulent case is the main motivator for the Peterson fellowship getting shut down at an early stage. From Cambridge's perspective: they didn't want another Noah Carl on their hands.

Carl is still a fellow to this day, btw.

@garfiald
Ugh. The term "race scientist" alone says a lot about this guy. Seems rather two faced of them to keep him there too. 😕

@InvaderXan Yeah I'm really not exaggerating when I call him a race scientist. Feel free to check this thread, in which I single out some of Carl's publications:

https://mastodon.social/@garfiald/101466401868051934

@garfiald
Oh damn. Yikes. Very yikes.

@garfiald *x files themes plays*

@garfiald @zenhob yeah. Like a G.

I’ve already agreed to award contracts to friends/classmates/colleagues, hire their unborn kids and let them speak as distinguished guests on my panel of “whatever the fuck it is” and vice versa. Career building is literally a function of your social circle and their ability to hype your mediocre ass up.

@garfiald another for your pile, please RT:
Jordo was given a speaking gig at the National Gallery of Canada because he was introduced to the Director, Marc Mayer, by some rich tech fuckhead.
The Gallery's entire staff dissented. Members dissented. Protests happened. But because moneyfriend helped, gig went through.
This resulted in a member of the young donors program (me) resigning with the program founder resigning in solidarity, eventually killing that whole donor prog

@garfiald Jordo, Mayer, rich tech asshole from Blackberry fame, all white cis men.

@cpi @garfiald Which particular Blackberry asshole? I can name several, unfortunately, but I’m curious which one you’re cancelling.

@georgieboy @garfiald I think it was Jim from RIM

@cpi @garfiald Balsillie? Yep, figured that’s who you likely meant.

@georgieboy @garfiald like I have no idea if he interfered on Jordo's behalf, just that Mayer was too spineless to date insult a rich white guy's friend, and thus his tenure was permanently stained.

@cpi @garfiald I didn't know they'd all been involved together, but like calls to like I guess. :(

@garfiald that's happening, when you do not clean your room often enough

@garfiald academics seize the means of grant funding like 50 years ago if you get the fucking chance comrades

@garfiald blackwood penned an op-ed in the frigging wall street journal about how the free market is woke and obamacare denied his mom cancer treatment and congress read it on the floor and added it to the congressional record, he's scum

@wintgenstein Yeah that was the one other thing he did lol

@garfiald holy shit lmao

@garfiald

That literally sounds like an even worse college than Prager "U".

@garfiald I don't... think that's proper latin. It's been a long time but something about that reads as improper grammar to me

@garfiald GO ON...

@garfiald
Mere popularity.

@garfiald I would be interested to know why academia rejects Žižek now.

@o @garfiald Same

@inkblot_sandwiches @o well there are a lot of intersecting factors. By the time Žižek became international director of the Birkbek Institue for the Humanities (one of the biggest academic jobs in the world), he had nothing left to prove to mainstream academia. So he pivoted to writing books aimed at a popular audience, and producing media for publications such as Russia Today, which have led to a dip in his academic legitimacy.

@garfiald biggest humanities jobs or academic period? imo like a Max Planck position in physics or smth would be a bigger academic position, not that they form a total ordering lol

@er1n yes of course, I'm talking in a broad sense. Its pretty good, is the main point

@garfiald yeah Žižek's interesting because he's like, a grubby raccoon boy but he is actually legitimately Thinking and not just peddling snake oil to incels