As the new school year begins, I was wondering where I was a decade ago this week.

For one thing, I was getting ready to square off in court against a far-Right former diplomat who had sued the CBC and me for libel.  We – assisted by the amazing Scott Hutchinson – won at trial, we won at appeal, and we won all the way up to the Supreme Court of Canada.

But I was also starting to work for Michael Ignatieff as an outside advisor (but not for long).  And one of the things we were doing, ten years ago, was making full and frequent use of the Interweebs – in a way that the Conservatives simply weren’t.

Here’s one such effort, posted under our GritGirl moniker.  Wonder if this sort of message could be reprised in 2019?

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Lady approaches me at Shiatsu place.

SHE: I love your hair! What do you do to hold it up?

ME: Pardon?

SHE: May I touch it?

ME: Um, okay.

She touches it.

SHE: What product do you use?

ME: Hand soap.

SHE: Hand soap?

ME: Yeah. It’s punk rock hair gel.

THE END

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I’ve been spending the past many years writing about – and fighting with – actual neo-Nazis, so I haven’t had much time for fringe cases like Jordan Peterson and Faith Goldy fan Lindsay Shepherd.

But I’ve certainly noted that the far Right – the hardcore neo-Nazis and white supremacists – sure like to reference Peterson and Shepherd a lot.  To them, these fringe types are the intellectualized version of their expressed prejudices.  (And, it hasn’t helped that otherwise-intelligent media/academic people have been sucked in by Peterson and Shepherd.)

So, I did a few minutes of research on Peterson.  This is what I found, with sources.  There will be more to come, as I find (or get sent) more.  Almost immediately, I didn’t see him as transphobic as much as he’s a misogynist.

• Peterson on women: “[Society is] increasingly dominated by a view of masculinity that’s mostly characteristic of women who have terrible personality disorders and who are unable to have healthy relationships with men.” (Slate)
• Peterson on femininity: “[That] terrible femininity…is undermining the masculine power of the culture in a way that’s, I think, fatal.” (Slate)
• Peterson on misogyny: “The idea that women were oppressed throughout history is an appalling theory.” (Toronto Life)
• Peterson on abortion: “Abortion is clearly wrong. I don’t think anyone debates that. You wouldn’t recommend that someone you love have one.” (Bridgehead)
• Peterson on inclusion: “It’s not the role of society to make people feel included. That’s not the role of society.” (CBC)
• Peterson on protecting people from gender discrimination: “[It is an] assault on biology and an implicit assault on the idea of the objective world.” (C2C)
• Peterson on how women are neurotic: “Women are higher when it comes to Agreeableness — wanting everyone to get along…and Neuroticism — higher in negative emotion…” (The Spectator)
• Peterson on LGBT people: “They’re power-mad people who use compassion as a disguise.” (The Star)
• Peterson on being impolite: “There’s this strong compulsion to be polite. And not to purposefully offend someone. And I think that polite compulsion is being hijacked by power-mad leftists. In fact I’m certain of it.” (The Star)
• Peterson on not caring if he’s offending anyone: “I think that people need to be able to say whatever they want no matter how outrageous.” (The Globe)
• Peterson on why everyone would’ve likely supported Hitler at the time: “If you think that you wouldn’t be tempted by having 20 million people worship you, then you don’t know yourself at all.” (Forward)
• Peterson on why he can’t use violence against women, but would apparently like to: “I’m defenceless against that kind of female insanity because the techniques that I would use against a man who was employing those tactics are forbidden to me.” (The Varsity)

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