Jordan Peterson says Speak The Truth. But it may Require a Revolution
Tags: Politics, Jordan Peterson, Free Speech

Welcome to Moral Libertarian View, a podcast style program where we discuss big ideas to see if they can contribute to more individual liberty and equal opportunity, values that are at the heart of the Moral Libertarian idea. Unlike many popular channels out there, this show is a dedicated non echo-chamber, where views from the left, right and center are all going to be considered without discrimination. I hope you subscribe if you are interested.

Today, I want to respond to a clip Jordan Peterson recently uploaded, where he encouraged people to speak the truth. His message was that, we should all conceptualize the highest good that we can, aim at that, and then tell the truth. Basically, we should speak as per our conscience believes. If we all do that, we will have a much better world. A very simple message, and one I totally agree with. The reason why I’m a Moral Libertarian is because I believe people can’t be always right, and all ideas from all individuals need to be challenged in the free market of ideas regularly, so we can get closer to the truth. To participate in the free market of ideas in good conscience would of course require us to speak the whole truth of what we believe. There’s one problem though: we live in a world where it’s often not easy to speak the truth.

Many people would say that the problem is a lack of free speech. For example, people are socially punished for saying controversial things, even losing their jobs for it, and there are also activists who de-platform speakers for a variety of reasons. My regular audience would know that I am deeply concerned about these things. But the problem actually goes much deeper. The problem is that, many people, no matter their background or belief, simply don’t want to listen to ideas they don’t agree with. Too many people like to live within their echo chamber, with their views never being challenged. If their views are ever challenged, they somehow feel unsafe, and they react very badly. This is the reason why we often can’t have rational and constructive debates on important issues.

The fact is, even before so-called ‘safe speech’ became a thing, the safe speech mentality was already pervasive in many social circles. I know this because, being the outspoken person that I am, I have regularly received social backlash, even 10 or 12 years ago. The truth is, the safe speech mentality is not new, and if we are to be free to speak the truth, we must actively overcome it. To overcome the safe speech mentality, we need a revolution in the way we think about many things. For example, from now on, we need to agree 100% that it is never impolite to disagree. We should expect even our close friends to disagree with us all the time. Furthermore, we should actively step out of our echo chambers, and step out into the wider world, to listen to all the diverse voices out there. Many of us actually live in social circles that are akin to safe spaces, and that’s not healthy. To counterbalance this, we need to actively expose ourselves to the full range of people and ideas out there. Finally, we need to remember not to take any disagreements personally. We need to remember that, to regularly have someone disagree with our point of view is a natural fact of life, not a statement of our deficiency. Besides, if we are truly confident about what we believe in, and we are certain that we have sound arguments for our belief, we wouldn’t feel bad about others disagreeing. On the other hand, when we are not truly confident of our own position, which is certainly more frequent than people would admit, then we need to give the other side a fair go to change our minds.

That’s all for today. I’ll be back next time to discuss another big idea. Subscribe if you want to follow our story. And remember to resist the hive mind and stay individualistic. The world depends on it.