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What Jordan Peterson & Noam Chomsky Have in Common
Why Contrarian Intellectuals are Wrong About Ukraine
Lately, a lot of intellectuals have promoted some (in my humble view) erroneous views about Putin, Russia, and Putin’s war in Ukraine.
Other internet influences have put some blatantly false stuff out there about the conflict — but that isn’t surprising. The right-wing pundit, Candace Owens, comes to mind who said that Zelenskyy is “a very bad character who is working with globalists against the interests of his own people.”
It’s more concerning when some we also respect get the conflict so wrong.
People are often wrong about Ukraine. The reason I’m surprised with some of their disagreement is that, broadly, there’s not that much to disagree with here.
To borrow from Owens once more, many of these people are not willing to budge on their views. In her words: “I will not move one inch away from that assessment — ever — no matter how flowery the media depictions of him are.”
On Owens’ talk show, she went so far as to say that “Ukraine wasn’t a thing until 1989. Ukraine was created by the Russians…They speak Russian.”
That is a gross misunderstanding of history — one that Peterson, Chomsky, and Mearsheimer would not make. I…
