Why are Jordan Peterson and James Lindsay getting Totalitarianism so wrong?!
Peterson and Lindsay grasp the threat of totalitarianism—but miss its nature. They reduce mass psychosis to personal pathology, blaming psychopaths instead of confronting the emergent dynamics of sick systems.
That’s like explaining wetness by pointing to a few especially “wet” atoms. Classic reductionist fallacy.
The terrifying truth is that mass psychosis happens to healthy minds. It has nothing to do with individual mental defects.
In fact, psychopaths are less likely to be persuasive. The leaders of these movements are smart, sincere, righteous—and seemed perfectly normal before the cult took hold.
We all saw this during Covid.
But most still haven’t learned history’s most sobering lesson: totalitarianism, democide and societal-level evil are driven by regular, decent, well-intentioned people.
THIS is the banality of evil.
I have a Science Moment Playlist of 30 episodes on this general topic.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHmody2xNMCt6cZy_LDhBi2K_DZh20igB&si=C9LaoxC1OHrIrpQB