Paglia defends Peterson

Seen on Instapundit:

Jordan Peterson, a Canadian clinical psychologist, professor, writer, and now cultural commentator, gained infamy when he loudly announced his refusal to bow to linguistic tyranny by using newly invented and politically correct gendered pronouns (like "zyr") to refer to people who see themselves as sitting along some sort of gender spectrum. Since then, Peterson has become a ubiquitous talking head, appearing on TV and YouTube interviews everywhere. Many of those interviews are civil and enlightening; some are downright confrontational. In the midst of all the tumult, Peterson found the time to write his second book, the bestselling 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, which I'm currently reading, along with millions of other English-speaking folks across the world. (Peterson, who likes to refer to Jung, wrote the 1999 Maps of Meaning, a book I'm now interested in purchasing.)

In the above statement, Camille Paglia, herself a cultural commentator and an author several times over (as well as my favorite feminist), defends Peterson in the wake of a hit piece titled "Jordan Peterson and Fascist Mysticism" found in The New York Review of Books. Paglia and Peterson recently engaged in a lengthy dialogue that can be found on YouTube for those willing to spend the time (1:43:00) to watch it. Although Paglia can be a narcissistic blowhard (just read the above statement to see what I mean), she's sharp and she hits hard, never suffering fools gladly. In the battleground of ideas, I'd want ol' Camille in the foxhole with me. She can be daffy in her arguments on occasion, but her heart is always in the right place, and I think she's fundamentally correct on those matters that matter.