Blog #12: The ‘Enforced Monogamy’ Scandal is Dumb

The ‘enforced monogamy’ JBP scandal is dumb. Some thoughts:

1. It’s an established term in anthropology, apparently. It doesn’t necessarily mean government enforced. The term itself implies socially-enforced via culture.

That being said, it’s pretty obvious that the general public isn’t familiar with this term, and would take it in the context that makes sense to them. I think this is a fault on his part. All he had to do was say ‘socially-enforced monogamy’ and half the attacks on this wouldn’t exist.

2. I don’t blame the general public for interpreting it as government-enforced. Again, the fault is on JBP for using unfamiliar terminology. I do blame those that claim to really understand JBP and still insist that he wants government to enforce monogamy. The guy that rails against government influencing language is probably not going to advocate government influencing monogamy.

3. As for socially-enforced monogamy, I don’t necessarily disagree. I doubt he’s advocating for arranged marriages (if he was, that would be a dumb idea). He’s likely saying people should encourage those around them (especially parents encouraging their children) to pursue a fulfilling romantic relationship rather than sleep around with random people. I believe the context of the conversation was about dealing with incels. JBP was saying that a culture where monogamy is the norm reduces the number of incels better than a culture where polygamy is the norm. I don’t think he’s wrong there.

4. Final note: Some people were accusing him of ‘blaming the victim’ because he was advocating a solution ‘helps’ incels. I really, really, really hate when people throw out the ‘blaming the victim’ accusation. It’s so dumb. Regular people will start discussing practical ways to stop bad people from doing bad things, or discuss ways that people can avoid becoming a victim of these bad people.

It’s already assumed that bad people doing bad things is bad. It’s also assumed that bad people will continue to do bad things, and that simply punishing them after the fact isn’t working well enough. Regular people will then figure out ways to stop this from happening. Morons will then come out and accuse these people of ‘blaming the victim’. It’s dumb.

Some links:

https://thelibertarianrepublic.com/jordan-peterson-and-enforced-monogamy-heres-what-you-dont-understand/

https://jordanbpeterson.com/media/on-the-new-york-times-and-enforced-monogamy/

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