At a time of personal confusion and pain in my life, Jordan Peterson and the alt right gave me direction and purpose. I eventually realized that purpose was spreading a cruel, antisocial worldview — but not before I inflicted that cruelty on those around me.
As someone who used to be obsessed with Jordan Peterson and had a similar 180 transformation, this is super familiar to me. I remember speaking up at work against critical race theory in a meeting. I look back on that now with huge embarrassment of who I used to be. I was actively working against the things that I stand for now. I’m super grateful to breadtube creators for pulling me out. I still have friends in my life who are like this and I can’t seem to break them out. All I can do is try to be a better example
You should be proud of yourself. Thanks for being here, we need perspectives like yours to help us remain empathetic.
Your courage and honesty are commendable
Which breadtube creators helped you out?
Contrapoints got me on the right track, but I could also imagine Vaush and his edginess being a good foot in the door for some.
That’s how it worked for me.
When I started college, I thought Steven Crowder was a smart guy (only because I was a complete idiot back then.) I would watch his debates and think he was so clever debating unprepared college students. Which led to debates with Vaush and Destiny in them. Which then led into deeper breadtube.
Now I’m more leftist than Destiny or Vaush from watching Noah Samson and the like. Noah is my favorite breadtuber right now.
Contra would be really good if she didn’t suffer from chronic foot-in-mouth disease.
Absolutely. I don’t watch her very much anymore, but if nothing else she was a big contributing factor to getting me solidly left.
Initially the most significant was Richard Wolff. His video popped up on my homepage and I actually only clicked it because I wanted to laugh at how dumb this “Marxist professor” must be. That did not happen. Instead he absolutely blew my mind. After doing some research, I discovered that Jordan Peterson had actually mentioned him. He said Richard Wolff had refused to debate him, but once I looked into Wolffs side of the story, I discovered that was a lie. And no wonder, it was obvious Wolff knew his stuff and would have been able to destroy Peterson in a debate.
That was when the wall came down for me. I became unsatiably curious about everything Marxist and anticapitalist, which led me to watching Second Thought, and then eventually leftist creators like Shaun, hbomherguy, some more news, and Hakim just to name a few. I was addicted and watched hours of this stuff everyday until my mind,attitudes and politics changed completely.
Is there a breadtube community on Lemmy?
EDIT: Nevermind, it’s linked lower down this very thread.
Why would you talk about that in a work meeting?!
During the meeting my boss asked us our thoughts about a recent diversity/equality training session we just had. Everyone said it was fine and interesting but I took the opportunity to be insufferable and soapbox. Like I said, I’m entirely embarrassed about it now and glad they didn’t really listen to me
Okay but for further situations, “the training was great” is always an acceptable response. Maybe throw an “I can send you my feedback later through mail/hr survey”
I mean Jesus
Give him a break, he is at least admitting his mistake and has reformed his opinions. I am sure it was a difficult journey, and he should be celebrated for making it out.
insert Paarthurnax quote
I think I can provide some insight. In the mind of an alt-right person/Peterson-fan, there exists to them a “silent majority” who believes the same things they do, but are too afraid to speak up. This is the delusion that I was under, as well as the OP in the linked article who spoke out in the middle of class to lambast a trans person. In both situations, they think that others secretly agree with them and will come out of the woodwork to support them. Of course there’s no reason to assume that people are being quiet because they’re afraid, rather than because they actually disagree with you.
Rather than imagine a full psychology mumbo jumbo, I just think he clearly lacks tact and maybe a bit of common sense which I get because maybe he was younger at the time?. You should never do politics/social issues at work, you just don’t. It’s bad shop policy for harmony at work places to touch a subject which might be sensitive to you or someone else and even yet if people do, you RESPECT them and their opinions. Going beyond that is just asking for trouble in my experience