Am I Making Jordan Peterson Look Stupid? — Russia, Ukraine, & NATO

We all know that Jordan Peterson tends to oversimplify when it comes to some topics. In saying that, I do not want to deny that Peterson is obviously well-educated, an appropriate appeal to authority concerning some issues, and an author that has helped many overcome life’s challenges.

I can imagine that Peterson is a great guy overall; a loving father, husband, and good friend. I am not here to smear Peterson. And that is why I framed this article with a question.

When it comes to Ukraine, Peterson’s views are, frankly, out of line. They inadvertently condone Vladimir Putin’s imperialist behavior. So, I’ll be frank here, they are stupid. They play into Putin’s propaganda machine.

Let me explain.

Peterson has spoken about Ukraine on a number of separate occasions. During one of his long lectures, Peterson put on his YouTube channel, he echoed the views of the political theorist, John Mearsheimer, whose view could be summarized as: “Russia is wrong to invade Ukraine, but the West’s NATO expansion is also to blame.”

We will all agree on the first part of this premise.

In the words of the conservative writer, David French:

A Russian cruise missile launched into an apartment building, by contrast, represents a truly different order of depravity. A nation or culture does not have to be perfect to be right, and make no mistake — in the clash between the war criminal in the Kremlin and Ukraine and its NATO allies, the true moral high ground could not be more clear.

Peterson also makes some other valid comments connected to this topic.

For one, he rightly points out that the EU became too dependent on Russian gas in recent decades and that Putin is morally responsible for the killing in Ukraine.

Secondly, he points out that much of the conflict can be attributed to Putin’s imperialist Soviet-era visions.

Thirdly, he also calls out the Russian Orthodox Church’s hypocrisy toward the war.

But these insights are hardly difficult to spot and noteworthy. Most of us can see them and they barely deserve praise.

The issue that is most concerning is that Peterson doesn’t see the difference between NATO, the Warsaw Pact, and the Soviet Union.

When the Warsaw Pact Invaded Itself

On this day, August 21st 1968, the Warsaw Pact, at the helm with the Soviet Union, invaded Czechoslovakia with 500,000 troops.

This was the first and only time the Warsaw Pact invaded one of its members.

What was Czechoslovakia’s crime?

Under the leadership of Alexander Dubcek, Czechoslovakia pursued increased democratization; Dubcek called for more freedom of the press; he enabled more travel abroad; in short, Dubcek looked to the West, against the USSR General Secretary, Leonid Brezhnev’s, wishes.

The occupation of Czechoslovakia lasted for 20 years.

The fundamental difference between the Warsaw Pact and NATO, to oversimplify, is that NATO does not militarily occupy states that wish to leave the defensive alliance.

The “expansion” of NATO and the Warsaw Pact are entirely different.

NATO is a defensive alliance. Its expansion came as a direct response to threats from Russia.

After the Second World War, when Eastern European countries were left to their own devices after a conference in Yalta in 1945, Stalin effectively took over Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Albania, Romania, Bulgaria, and East Germany.

These countries only saw freedom some 40 years later, in 1989, when the Iron Curtain fell.

Without NATO expansion, the risk of that happening again would be extremely likely.

To see it otherwise is to fundamentally and fatally misunderstand the history of the region.

To reiterate, without NATO, Central Eastern Europe and Eastern Europe would be in a sphere of influence between the West and the East. And we would have a much larger conflict on our hands.

Did Putin Respond to NATO Expansion?

The above does not directly respond to the argument that NATO expansion led to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014 and then 2022.

The problem with that line of reasoning is that it’s horribly simplistic and frankly, yes, stupid.

Here are compelling reasons we can doubt that premise:

• It was clear that both Ukraine and Georgia were decades away from joining NATO in 2008. Putin couldn’t have possibly thought that they were a few years away from membership. His claims that he acted to prevent Ukraine from entering NATO is not a possibility because Ukraine was not entering NATO this decade.
• Finland and Sweden showed strong interest in joining NATO in 2022 following Putin’s full-scale invasion. So … why didn’t he invade them as well? If NATO expansion truly threatens him, then he should have also invaded the Baltic states.
• Last but not least, it is interesting that Putin coincidentally justified the eradication of Ukraine as a nation in his infamous essay, “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians” with his full-scale invasion. Wouldn’t that contradict his ‘NATO expansion’ justification? Of course, Putin made similar remarks before, such as when he illegally annexed Crimea in 2014.

It’s up to you, the reader, to decide if we can start calling these remarks stupid. To be completely honest with you, I’m increasingly starting to think that it’s safe to say they are.

They are not based in reality and they completely legitimize imperialism at a time when global order is already threatened by regional instability in Africa, the Indo-Pacific, and now Europe.

Apologies Peterson for being so blunt.

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