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Even if you’re not a huge fan of public intellectual Jordan Peterson, you’ve probably heard about some of his latest social media problems in Canada these days. The professional organization to which he belongs – the College of Psychologists of Ontario – is forcing him to take remedial training in social media. And if he refuses, they will yank his license as a practicing psychologist.
Of course, Jordan Peterson did not actually do anything wrong. He just said what he was thinking aloud, and posted those thoughts to social media. Known primarily for his controversial YouTube videos, Peterson has become one of the key examples of what can happen to you if you engage in “wrong think” on social media.
What is remedial social media training?
And that’s where the remedial social media training comes into the picture. It’s not that Peterson needs any help figuring out how to use like or share buttons, or any help in how to create a YouTube video. No, he needs help, the College of Psychologists of Ontario says, because he does not know what can be said, and what can’t be said, on social media these days.
If that sounds a bit Orwellian to you, well, perhaps it is. It sounds a lot like what the Soviets did when they found out someone was thinking the wrong thoughts about the Communist regime. They’d send that person to a re-education camp to help them figure out the error of their ways. After a nice little stay in Siberia, the dissident would usually be ready to go back home and behave.
The other side of the story
That’s one way of looking at things and, admittedly, it’s a bit negative. The other side of the story is that Jordan Peterson is part of a professional body (the College of Psychologists of Ontario), and it has very specific professional guidelines. As a former University of Toronto psychology professor, Peterson agreed to abide by their rules. And that doesn’t change just because he somehow became an online YouTube celebrity.
So maybe all that social media “remedial coaching” is not as bad as it sounds. For a period of five years, the College says, it has been receiving complaints about Peterson, and that has reflected badly on its other members, who have sworn to protect the public interest. Moreover, Peterson has apparently smeared former clients in his social media videos, something that is obviously the wrong move for any professional. As a doctor or psychologist, you don’t repeat the deepest, darkest problems of people putting their trust in you.
From this perspective, Peterson is trying to have it both ways – he wants to say whatever he thinks on social media, and he wants to belong to a prestigious professional organization. Thus, the required remedial coaching is not dissimilar to what you’d expect if you were a bad driver. You’d be forced to take a defensive driving class, and after that, you’d be good to go.
The future of freedom of expression
If you believe in the slippery slope theory – in which a small event eventually precipitates a much bigger event – then we’re at the very tippy, tippy edge of that slope. Once Peterson is forced to accept his remedial social media training, it will be much easier to force all of us to do this. Make the wrong comment at work, and you might face the loss of your job. Say the wrong thing on YouTube, and you might find yourself facing all kinds of issues, including loss of access to your bank account.
For that reason, I’m inclined to see the case of Jordan Peterson as being an important bellwether event. If people are OK with this, then it’s clear that freedom of expression is coming to an end in democratic society. This is definitely a case to watch, because its impact is likely not limited just to Canada. With the 2024 U.S. presidential election cycle, it could be coming soon to America.
