Thanks To Assholes Like Jordan Peterson, Even Mild Limits On Cars Are Conspiracy Fuel For Morons

[hatrack]

Jordan Peterson is rarely lacking in strong opinions, but even by the standards of the Canadian psychologist turned hard-right culture warrior, this was vehement stuff: a city is planning to lock people in their local districts as part of a “well-documented” global plot to, ultimately, deprive them of all personal possessions. Where was this? Not Beijing, or even Pyongyang. It was Oxford. In the days since Peterson’s tweet – viewed 7.5m times – officials in the city have fielded endless queries from around the world asking why they are imposing a “climate lockdown”. Inevitably, there have also been some threats.

Repeated insistence that Peterson’s version of events is nonsense has done little to stem the tide. In the week or so since, large numbers of people, often from the far right or with links to other conspiracy theories, have leapt aboard. Oxford’s traffic plan, they insist, is the first step in a global plot led by – depending on who you listen to – the World Economic Forum (WEF) or the UN, designed to strip people of their fundamental rights and personal possessions in the name of the environment.

What’s going on? The short answer is that even in the context of an era in which conspiracy theories are rife, policies connected to cars and traffic seem particularly susceptible for a variety of reasons.

EDIT

This is all the more the case when you involve North Americans like Peterson, for whom ideas routine in much of continental Europe such as modal filtering and the “15-minute city” – the latter also popular among conspiracists – are almost unknown. Another factor is that efforts to limit urban driving inevitably attract the attention of the large pool of climate conspirators who, in a significant Venn diagram crossover with vaccine conspirators, often believe in the idea of a “great reset” plot led by multinational organisations. A march against the traffic filters plan took place on Sunday in Oxford under the banner of Not Our Future, a new group led by 80s pop duo turned anti-vaxxers Right Said Fred.

Ed. - Emphasis added. Oh, and also

EDIT

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2023/jan/10/why-do-traffic-reduction-schemes-attract-so-many-conspiracy-theories

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. Another RWNJ

[Bev54]

2. I think he gets more coverage in the US than he does in Canada

He certainly has his supporters but he is rarely spoken about in the media.