Skip to main content
Open Book Publishers

2. Jordan Peterson and Conservative Antisemitism Online: The Dethroning of an Intellectual Icon Following His Interview with Netanyahu

Export Metadata

  • ONIX 3.1
  • ONIX 3.0
    • Thoth
    • Project MUSE
      Cannot generate record: No BIC or BISAC subject code
    • OAPEN
    • JSTOR
      Cannot generate record: No BISAC subject code
    • Google Books
      Cannot generate record: No BIC, BISAC or LCC subject code
    • OverDrive
      Cannot generate record: No priced EPUB or PDF URL
  • ONIX 2.1
  • CSV
  • JSON
  • OCLC KBART
  • BibTeX
  • CrossRef DOI deposit
    Cannot generate record: This work does not have any ISBNs
  • MARC 21 Record
    Cannot generate record: MARC records are not available for chapters
  • MARC 21 Markup
    Cannot generate record: MARC records are not available for chapters
  • MARC 21 XML
    Cannot generate record: MARC records are not available for chapters
Metadata
Title2. Jordan Peterson and Conservative Antisemitism Online
SubtitleThe Dethroning of an Intellectual Icon Following His Interview with Netanyahu
ContributorMatthias J. Becker(author)
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0406.02
Landing pagehttps://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0406/chapters/10.11647/obp.0406.02
Licensehttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
CopyrightMatthias J. Becker
PublisherOpen Book Publishers
Published on2024-06-21
Long abstractThe age of digitalisation is characterised by an explosion of information as well as opinion exchange, but also by uncertainty and disorientation. In view of the polyphony of speakers and multitude of information, many web users tend to orient themselves to a range of new opinion leaders who could not have established their huge visibility prior to the era of the interactive web. Jordan Peterson, a former psychology professor, embodies perfectly the new ‘globalised’ public intellectual surrounded by a bevy of followers. In December 2022, Peterson interviewed Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The reactions of web users were numerous and―in stark contrast to the bulk of Peterson’s contributions―clearly negative. Peterson’s fascination with political heavyweights or strongmen is nothing new. Here, however, he provided a forum to one of the world’s best-known Jewish figures and the representative of the Jewish state. Peterson and Netanyahu’s conversation seems to have triggered various antisemitic ideas among those with a far-right worldview. However, many of the comments seem to come from the conservative online milieu to which Peterson belongs. The online thread discussing the clip thus forms a symbolic arena for proximity and friction between conservative and alt-right milieus in relation to Jew-hatred―a relationship that is not given enough space in the media and in academic analysis, as the focus is too often on the confrontation between the left and the alt-right and white-supremacy milieus. This paper qualitatively examines the commenters’ diverse reactions―of disillusionment and reorientation, but also of their devaluation and exclusion of a former idol―identified in the corresponding YouTube comments section and reconstructs the underlying concepts in a pragma-linguistic framework.
Page rangepp. 47–74
Print length74 pages
LanguageEnglish (Original)
Contributors

Matthias J. Becker

(author)
Project Lead of Decoding Antisemitism, Postdoc Researcher at ZfA at Technische Universität Berlin

Dr Matthias J. Becker is a linguist, with a strong focus on pragmatics, cognitive linguistics, (critical) discourse and media studies, research on prejudice and nationalism, as well as on social media studies. At Freie Universität Berlin, he read linguistics, philosophy and literature, and has worked in several research projects on the use of language in political and media campaigns. His doctoral dissertation, published with Nomos in 2018, analyses the linguistic construction of national pride, antisemitic stereotypes and demonising historical analogies in British and German discourses on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. An English version of the book (entitled Antisemitism in Reader Comments: Analogies for Reckoning with the Past) was published with Palgrave Macmillan in 2021. A consistent link between all his research activities is the question of how implicit hate speech―apparently accepted within various milieus of the political mainstream―is constructed and what conditions its production is subject to. Matthias is the creator and lead of the Decoding Antisemitism research project.

References
  1. ADL (Anti-Defamation League), 2022. “5 of Kanye West’s Antisemitic Remarks, Explained”, https://www.ajc.org/news/5-of-kanye-wests-antisemitic-remarks-explained
  2. Basaure, Mauro, Alfredo Joignant, and Rachel Théodore, 2023. “Public Intellectuals in Digital and Global Times”. International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, 36, 139–161, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-022-09417-y
  3. Becker, Matthias J., 2019. “Understanding Online Antisemitism: Towards a New Qualitative Approach”. Fathom: For a deeper understanding of Israel and the region, 09 October 2019, https://fathomjournal.org/understanding-online-antisemitism-towards-a-new-qualitative-approach
  4. Becker, Matthias J., 2021. Antisemitism in Reader Comments: Analogies for Reckoning with the Past. London: Palgrave Macmillan/Springer Nature, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70103-1
  5. Becker, Matthias J. and Matthew Bolton, 2022. “The Decoding Antisemitism Project—Reflections, Methods, and Goals”. Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism, 5 (1), 121–126, https://doi.org/10.26613/jca/5.1.105
  6. Becker, Matthias J. and Hagen Troschke, 2022. “How Users of British Media Websites Make a Bogeyman of George Soros”. Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism, 5 (1), 49–68, https://doi.org/10.26613/jca/5.1.100
  7. Becker, Matthias J., Hagen Troschke, and Daniel Allington, 2021. Decoding Antisemitism: An AI-driven Study on Hate Speech & Imagery Online. Discourse Report 1. Technische Universität Berlin. Centre for Research on Antisemitism, https://doi.org/10.14279/depositonce-14976
  8. Becker, Matthias J., Hagen Troschke, Matthew Bolton, and Alexis Chapelan (eds), 2024. Decoding Antisemitism: A Guide to Identifying Antisemitism Online. London: Palgrave Macmillan, https://link.springer.com/book/9783031492372
  9. Bolton, Matthew, 2024. “Evil/The Devil”. In: Matthias J. Becker, Hagen Troschke, Matthew Bolton, and Alexis Chapelan (eds). Decoding Antisemitism: A Guide to Identifying Antisemitism Online. London: Palgrave Macmillan, https://link.springer.com/book/9783031492372
  10. Chapelan, Alexis, 2024. “Repulsiveness and Dehumanisation”. In: Matthias J. Becker, Hagen Troschke, Matthew Bolton, and Alexis Chapelan (eds). Decoding Antisemitism: A Guide to Identifying Antisemitism Online. London: Palgrave Macmillan, https://link.springer.com/book/9783031492372
  11. Chapelan, Alexis, Laura Ascone, Matthias J. Becker, Matthew Bolton Pia Haupeltshofer, Jan Krasni, Alexa Krugel, Helena Mihaljević, Karolina Placzynta, Milena Pustet, Marcus Scheiber, Elisabeth Steffen, Hagen Troschke, Victor Tschiskale, and Chloé Vincent, 2023. Decoding Antisemitism: An AI-driven Study on Hate Speech and Imagery Online. Discourse Report 5. Technische Universität Berlin. Centre for Research on Antisemitism, https://doi.org/10.14279/depositonce-17105
  12. Dahlgren, Peter, 2012. “Public Intellectuals, Online Media, and Public Spheres: Current Realignments”. International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, 25 (4), 95–110, https://doi.org/10.14279/depositonce-17105
  13. Ebner, Julia, 2023. Going Mainstream: How Extremists are Taking Over. London: Bonnier Books
  14. Finlayson, Alan, 2021. “Neoliberalism, the Alt-Right and the Intellectual Dark Web”. Theory, Culture & Society, 38 (6), 167–190, https://doi.org/10.1177/02632764211036731
  15. Fleishman, Cooper and Anthony Smith, 2016. (((Echoes))), “Exposed: The Secret Symbol Neo-Nazis Use to Target Jews Online” [archive]. Mic, 1 June 2016, https://www.mic.com/articles/144228/echoes-exposed-the-secret-symbol-neo-nazis-use-to-target-jews-online
  16. Kelsey, Darren, 2020. “Archetypal Populism: The ‘Intellectual Dark Web’ and the ‘Peterson Paradox’”. In: Michael Kranert (ed.). Discursive Approaches to Populism Across Disciplines. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 171–198, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55038-7_7
  17. Königseder, Angelika, 2022. “Arthur Langerman’s Collection of Visual Antisemitica at the Center for Research on Antisemitism, Technische Universität Berlin”. In: Dossin, Kazerne (ed). #FakeImages. Unmask the Dangers of Stereotypes, Metropol, 108–112
  18. Lynskey, Dorian, 2018. “How dangerous is Jordan B Peterson, the rightwing professor who ‘hit a hornets’ nest’?”. The Guardian, 7 February 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/feb/07/how-dangerous-is-jordan-b-peterson-the-rightwing-professor-who-hit-a-hornets-nest
  19. Mayring, Philipp, 2015. “Qualitative content analysis: Theoretical background and procedures”. In: Approaches to Qualitative Research in Mathematics Education. Dordrecht: Springer, 365–380, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9181-6_13 
  20. Miller, Noam, 2020. “Public Intellectuals in the Digital Age”. The Prog, 11 January 2020, https://theprincetonprogressive.com/public-intellectuals-in-the-digital-age
  21. Nagle, Angela, 2017. Kill All Normies: Online Culture Wars from 4Chan and Tumblr to Trump and the Alt-Right. Winchester: Zero Books
  22. Peters, Michael A., 2022. “Public intellectuals, viral modernity and the problem of truth”. British Journal of Educational Studies, 70 (5), 557–573, https://doi.org/10.1080/00071005.2022.2141859
  23. Rich, Dave, 2016. The Left’s Jewish Problem. Jeremy Corbyn, Israel and anti-Semitism. Hull: Biteback Publishing
  24. Schwarz-Friesel, Monika, 2019. “‘Antisemitism 2.0’—The Spreading of Jew-hatred on the World Wide Web’. In: Lange, Armin et al. (eds). Volume 1: Comprehending and Confronting Antisemitism: A Multi-Faceted Approach. Berlin: De Gruyter, 311–338, https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110618594-026
  25. Schwarz-Friesel, Monika and Jehuda Reinharz, 2017. Inside the Antisemitic Mind: The Language of Jew-hatred in Contemporary Germany. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, https://doi.org/10.26530/oapen_625675 
  26. Solomon, Daniel, K., 2023. “Kanye and the new Far West of American Antisemitism”. La Revue, 05 January 2023, https://k-larevue.com/en/kanye-and-the-new-far-west-of-american-antisemitism
  27. Trachtenberg, Joshua, 2002. The Devil and the Jews: The Medieval Conception of the Jew and Its Relation to Modern Anti-Semitism. Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society
  28. Troschke, Hagen, 2024. “Disloyalty, Dual Loyalty”. In: Matthias J. Becker, Hagen Troschke, Matthew Bolton, and Alexis Chapelan (eds). Decoding Antisemitism: A Guide to Identifying Antisemitism Online. London: Palgrave Macmillan, https://link.springer.com/book/9783031492372
  29. Troschke, Hagen and Matthias J. Becker, 2019. “Antisemitismus im Internet. Erscheinungsformen, Spezifika, Bekämpfung”. In: Jikeli, Günther/Glöckner, Olaf (eds). Das neue Unbehagen. Antisemitismus in Deutschland heute. Hildesheim: Olms, 151–172
  30. Wendling, Mike, 2018. Alt-Right: From 4Chan to the White House. London: Pluto Press
  31. Wilson, Jason, 2022. “Kanye’s Antisemitic Hate Speech Platformed by Enablers in Tech, Media, Politics”, Southern Poverty Law Center, 7 December 2022, https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2022/12/07/kanyes-antisemitic-hate-speech-platformed-enablers-tech-media-politics