**Tl; Dr. Jordan Peterson is a mixed bag for some, but he is great because of his work which teaches and motivates people to be a better person and his defence of free speech.** Clinical psychologist and University of Toronto Professor Jordan Peterson has become one of the most, if not the, famous western public intellectuals in recent times. His public lectures where he talks about his ’12 rules for life’, discovering personality and finding meaning in the world have been essentially inspiring to people and especially young men, having been viewed over 40 million times. Peterson is also a best-selling author of two books, ’12 rules for life’ and his most recent ’12 more rules for life’ in which he establishes a set of rules to live by to live a better life for yourself, both being New York times best sellers selling over 3 million copies for the first. Peterson’s effect has been profound upon people who have struggled throughout life and his words speak volume when he talks of taking responsibility for yourself and telling young people to ‘stand up straight with your shoulders back’. He writes his book as he talks through his lectures, combining psychology and religion as a framework to build around his self-help book. Despite criticisms of only appealing to young white men, he appeals to most people who take the time to listen to his words: such is shown through his sold-out world tour and reviews of his work. Jordan Peterson is also great because of his defence of free speech. He has become a polarising figure after kicking the hornet’s nest of pronouns and free speech, but his argument to defend it is needed now more than ever. He risked his career to speak out about the Canadian bill C-16 which condemned free speech, stating it as ‘totalitarian’ and further stating in an interview that [‘in order to to think you have to risk being offensive’;](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/9235800-in-order-to-be-able-to-think-you-have-to) The very use of this platform to voice one’s opinion is allowed because we have the right to voice our opinion. Everyone deserves to be listened to and understood, that way we can learn and debate to find a solution. Peterson is a great man because he continues to inspire and motivate people whilst simultaneously fighting the good cause for free speech.

**TL;DR: Jordan Peterson has contributed good things to the psychology field, but "great" is an overstatement when his inflammatory speech and delegitimization of social issues are taken into consideration** Some of Peterson's more problematic stances are summed up here by The Guardian, using direct quotes from Peterson: ["'The idea that women were oppressed throughout history is an appalling theory.' Islamophobia is 'a word created by fascists and used by cowards to manipulate morons'. White privilege is 'a Marxist lie'. Believing that gender identity is subjective is 'as bad as claiming that the world is flat'.](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/feb/07/how-dangerous-is-jordan-b-peterson-the-rightwing-professor-who-hit-a-hornets-nest) For me, these kind of statements disqualify someone from being labeled as "great". These statements, paired with his PhD and cool, calm, and collected attitude give his audience (mostly young white conservative men) the relief they've been looking for from being painted as the oppressor (and consequently reduce action taken to combat oppressive systems). Regarding the C-16 controversy, in which Peterson has often been championed as a defender of free speech, many Canadian law experts agree that Peterson was misinterpreting the C-16 bill, that it would take something much more extreme than misgendering someone to cause legal consequences. He also just has the somewhat annoying attitude of belittling those who disagree with him, adopting an indifferent tone to make those who are passionate seem silly or crazy, and even calling some ideas that differ from his own silly, absurd, or insane.