Doctor Peterson, thank you for this AMA. I hope this is not too long. I am a student at a London university. Recently there was a one-man attack in central London that killed four people, including the attacker. It does not seem that he was afraid of death. I have grown more and more anxious about the prospect of attacks occurring in London ever since the news reports of terrorism across Europe began to accumulate.
Some universities in London have loud minorities of SJW types. I find myself more and more compelled to speak out against their tendencies toward censorship and reverse racism, but then I contemplate my own fear and silence, and wonder whether this PC posturing is exploited by those who are most afraid of authoritarian Islamism; I suspect that many students hide behind the unthinking condemnation of "Islamophobia" and "white skin privilege" because it partially camouflages themselves and their immediate institutions from coercive ideological rhetoric (much of which happens to come from Muslims, which is to say exactly nothing about individual Muslims... I can't believe I'm compelled to make this explicit), or the dangers of truly violent, indiscriminate attacks from suicidal jihadists. It's like cowards and ideologues are joining forces for their own deceitful purposes.
Is speaking out against these pathologies the best thing to do, when there is a large body of acquiesced students in the background, who are afraid for themselves, their friends, and the stability of their day-to-day lives?
The statistics of recent British Muslim opinion polls are very frightening to me. I worry about the absurd things some parents are teaching to their British-born children about Jews, about the rights of women, about men's ownership of women, etc. When statements such as this "trigger" the intolerant activists, I suspect that much of them do so for precisely the reasons I laid out. Some of them want to be concealed by the perverted relationship between social justice activism and violent Islamism. Ideological violence appears endemic to a significant minority of Muslim households; when adolescents attempt to break free from the strict cultural impositions of their parents, it sometimes leads to the kind of sickening events that occasionally appear in the news. Sometimes, I feel the only thing I can say about my political views is that I am afraid to express them. I could get harassed by SJWs, third-generation British Muslims might label me a racist, or maybe I'll get jumped on in the street by random strangers who've merely been told about my "Islamophobia".
How might we establish a robust platform to achieve far-reaching, problem-solving dialogue?
In any case, I'd like you to know that I have been deeply influenced by your lecture videos and TV appearances. I never thought that authentic speech could drastically alter my behaviour in such a positive way. Your videos have altered the trajectory of my life for the better, and I hope to play a part in the positive chain reaction that you've catalysed into broader society.