A lack of visible positive role models is a big part of it. When nobody else wants to engage with isolated and directionless young white men, people like Peterson will fill the vacuum. Couple that with amoral algorithms of social media generating engagement at any cost, and they soon have an audience.

Ensuring everyone has opportunities and and a sense of inclusion would go a lot further than just trying to teach everyone to recognise false shepherds. That's just treating the symptom and not the cause, and would likely end up with them falling prey to another wolf with a better sheepskin.

[–] robotrash@lemmy.robotra.sh 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Be careful with that second sentence. Keep in mind that there's an age everyone experiences, not just white men, where people feel isolated and unheard. Believing that it only applies to young white men is a slippery slope into the mindset that creates these whackjobs.

[–] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 13 points 1 year ago

Keep in mind that there's an age everyone experiences, not just white men, where people feel isolated and unheard. Believing that it only applies to young white men is a slippery slope into the mindset that creates these whackjobs.

OK, but young white men are Peterson's target demographic and he doesn't really appeal to anyone else (broadly). You're correct that everyone experiences that feeling but it's not really relevant to this conversation.

The person you replied to did not imply in any way that only young white men experience that feeling of isolation. Rather, the point was that they are the group most affected by Peterson's rhetoric.

[–] Alteon@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Oh, I don't disagree. There's many systemic failures that have to occur for this to happen. YouTube thankfully has gone through efforts to remove it's radicalization issue, so hopefully we'll start to see it slow down or peter out over the next decade or so. However, I'm worried that the damage is already done.