We Hear You: Jordan Peterson on What Motivates the Left

Editor’s note: The Daily Signal’s audience appears to like the straight talk from best-selling author Jordan Peterson about the West’s crisis of spirit and meaning. Check out these observations. Don’t forget to write us at letters@dailysignal.com.-Ken McIntyre

Dear Daily Signal: About Jarrett Stepman’s story on Canadian psychologist and author Jordan Peterson’s speech at a Heritage Foundation event in New York (“Jordan Peterson Unpacks What Drives the Left and How to Restore Meaning“):

As long as people have complaints there are going to be
politicians who will promise relief, if only you will vote for them. This
happens both on the left and the right.

I
suppose it all depends on your point of view as to what people should do for
themselves, if they are able, and what the government (others) should do for
them, whether or not they are able.

Individuals have varying concepts of social responsibility. Some believe it is taking care of themselves only; others see social responsibility as taking care of themselves and their family only.

And others see it as providing social insurance programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, rent subsidies, welfare payments, unemployment compensation, etc., which they or family members may need one day.

Regardless
of the degree to which people feel a social responsibility, they also recognize
it is their responsibility to fund these programs through taxes.

Then
there are individuals who have an even broader sense of social responsibility
that seemingly has no limits. Some in this category have no problem with higher
taxes to support the costs.

Among
them are some who pay no income taxes and want their feelings of social
responsibility to be paid for by someone else. Those who don’t pay for the
social welfare benefits they demand for themselves and others have no sense of
responsibility, social or otherwise.-Drew Page

***

Practical
meaning and wisdom can be passed consistently on from generation to generation
only through the historical original family unit.

Of what does that unit consist? A husband, a wife, and whatever biological children are born to this faithful couple. This husband and wife then proceed to own the personal education of each child from Day One.

Primary textbook? The Holy Bible itself. What? An outdated, ancient, archaic text? Not at all.

The
Bible gives many examples concerning the consistent application of God’s laws
and teachings throughout changing times and cultures, identifying which
specifics can be subject to change as well as those details which must remain
the same.

I
began to appreciate these things about the Bible at around age 3 or 4 as my
reading comprehension was increasing to each new level. It was the Bible, more
than anything else, that helped my personal comprehension to grow as I
personally applied every lesson in it the best I could as I went along.

My
aim from the beginning was not to become a scholar, but a doer. And I was
learning to apply this same principle to all of my subsequent education, at
home and at school.

I
enjoyed all the advantages of my three curricula: school, parents, and self.
The practical balance among these was best maintained by passing on what I was
learning to my classmates and to others as well.-Joseph O. Morrow

***

Today, kids are taught by teachers and professors who were
indoctrinated by their own teachers and professors, the draft dodgers and
socialist hippies of the 1960s.

They are lefties teaching and glossing over leftists’ failed
ideology. That is why the left wants to control education.-Peter Raymond

***

When I immigrated to this country as a woman of Japanese
descent, the state where I settled with my husband was a great red state.
However, the more people from blue states moved in, the worse it got.

Now it is a blue state. I can feel and hear the sound of
liberalism. It is a scary feeling.-Yasuko Kearney

***

You conservatives don’t have to worry about socialists taking
over the U.S., despite what Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh tell you.

Except for 77-year-old Bernie Sanders, there are only about four
socialists in Congress, and they are all young. What harm can they do? The other 530 members of Congress won’t
let socialism happen, so stop worrying about it.

Even then, their view of socialism is different than yours.
Every American born after 1985 has no understanding of the evils of communism
and school drills calling for us to duck under our desks.

The two generations born after 1985 have never lived under
communist threat, yet they are the two most anxious generations of our
lifetime. They live in fear that Social Security and Medicare will be gone by
the time they retire, and they’ll have to spend their retirement working at
Walmart. What’s happened to college tuition has been insane over the past 35
years.

Students are facing costs of $50,000 to $90,0000 for just one
year of college. Their idea of socialism is simply the current economy with
more free stuff, to abate the anxiety. Like free retirement, free health care,
free tuition, and free child care.

That’s all they want. That’s their idea of socialism. So many
generations got free retirement and free retirement health care that these two
anxious generations also want it.

Now that’s a better explanation than Peterson made. They are not
greedy, and they are not nihilistic. They simply want to be free of anxiety
about the future.-Andre Stephenson

Dear Daily Signal: I’m writing about Genevieve Wood’s interview of Jordan Peterson, author of “12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos,“ at a Heritage Foundation event (“Jordan Peterson Explains What Draws People to Socialism“). The desire for the government to control your life is similar to how your parents controlled your life as a child.

Socialists
have a distinct fear of failure, so they place their well-being in the hands of
the government:

“Please
take care of me. I need free health care, I need a free education. I need a
place to live and food to eat. Please, Mr. Government, take care of me. I need
a new car and a guaranteed income.”

Mr.
Government: “I will take care of you. I’ll give you what I decide you need. You
will all be happier when I take care of you.”

“I want it free, free for me. Let the rich pay for everything.
Here, take this Bill of Rights. Give me all I want for free.”-Walter Knight

***

We are trying to counter the socialist argument by comparing
socialism with capitalism, and, of course, socialism always loses in that
comparison.

But the objective of socialism is not to outdo capitalism in
terms of economic performance and the betterment of individual lives, but to
steal the wealth of society and subjugate and control the masses. It never has
been about anything else.-Morris Steen

***

I really
enjoyed Genevieve Wood’s discussion with Jordan Peterson on socialism and the
radical left’s obsession with big government and big taxes.

Education is
the key to restoring our republic. By teaching�our founding documents and
the golden rule, respect will lead to socialism fading away.

I will
continue to fight for freedom and liberty and work to get the Civics
Act of 2019 passed and signed into law to teach civics in K-12.

Will you join
me? Capitalism and free markets trump socialism. Let freedom ring.-Bill King, Pittsburgh

***

An extraordinary interview of an extraordinary man.-James Rodgers

***

Gotta love how Jordan Peterson describes why we need socialism
in response to the dogmatic question of why we shouldn’t have socialism.-Christopher
Robert

***

People have turned their backs on the message of the Bible. They
need the power of God to live and guide their lives, but, thinking they can do
it all themselves, they find out quickly it doesn’t work.

So now they turn to the government to make it right for them, but only to find out people can’t fix other people’s sin nature.-Richard Donahue

How Are We Doing?

Dear Daily Signal: Right on. Your work in defense of our county’s future is exemplary.� The Daily Signal is a constant reminder of all that is relevant in our pursuit of a better America.�

I am a contributor to The Heritage Foundation and I look forward
daily to receiving these articles.� Keep
up the good work. Now more than ever, we need support from patriots such as
your admirable organization.-Lawrence Easterling

***

Conservatives need to get through to leftists. Sadly, we are preaching to the choir.

The Daily Signal needs to bombard the left with a message that
they can understand and hear. We need to find a way to get liberals to listen.

We must get our message on liberal TV, newspapers, and so on. Instead
of calling in to conservative stations, we need an all-out campaign to liberal
media.-Susan Rose

***

Compliments to you are in order for the improvements in the range
of topics and the shift to harder-hitting direct language. Worth reading now.-Loretta
Johns

***

Factual reporting. Keep up the good work.-Robert Porter

I received many political emails daily but yours is the most
concise and informative of them all.-Stan Stanley

Y’all are the best. Keep it up.-William
Summerlin

***

You are the best. Keep up the good work.-Arnie McFalls

It is refreshing to see objectivity at the expense of political correctness for a change. Truth, what a weird concept in today’s media marketplace.-W. Bostic

I appreciate your service and that it is concise.-Charles
Davis

***

Good job. Just keep reporting and
exposing any bill, federal or state, that is contrary to our Constitution and
basic human decency. These are high priority items.-Chuck Collins

Keep up the good fight, the real news.-George Porter

Sarah Sleem and Courtney Joyner helped to compile this edition of “We Hear You.”

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