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Pete Carroll had controversial psychology professor Jordan Peterson speak with his staff

Pete Carroll had controversial psychology professor Jordan Peterson speak with his staff

Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll invited University of Toronto psychology professor Jordan Peterson to speak to his staff Thursday, and tweeted out a picture of himself and his guest speaker.

It’s unclear whether Peterson spoke to the entire locker room, a select group of players or staff, or simply Carroll’s inner-circle. We also don’t know what Peterson talked about, other than it was “enlightening.”

But after looking into Peterson, one thing is clear: he’s a strange choice as a guest speaker for an NFL team.

Who is Jordan Peterson?

Peterson is a professor at the University of Toronto, who’s focus is on social, personality and abnormal psychology. His latest book, “12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos,” is currently listed as the No. 2 most-read nonfiction book on Amazon — behind only James Comey’s “A Higher Loyalty.” A George Mason economics professor called Peterson “the most influential public intellectual in the Western world right now.”

In many ways, he is also a right-wing Internet celebrity. Peterson’s YouTube channel has over 1 million subscribers, and he has more than 660,000 followers on Twitter.

His rhetoric on the Internet and in interviews has drawn charges of sexism and racism. He said that feminists have “an unconscious wish for brutal male domination,” when asked about their support of Muslims’ rights. In 2016, he tweeted to women in general, saying that if they “usurp men they will rebel and fail and you will have to jail or enslave them.”

Peterson recently talked about the “disappearing masculinity in America” in an interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson. In the interview, Peterson said that “centuries of oppression of women by men is an absolutely, reprehensible, ideological re-write of history,” and that this is what is taught largely in schools and universities, and that this is harming young boys.

“If you have your children in a school, and they talk about equity, diversity, inclusivity, white privilege, systemic racism, any of that, you take your children out of the class,” Peterson said in the interview when asked what advice he could give to parents. “They’re not being educated, they’re being indoctrinated, and there’s absolutely no excuse for it.”

In an interview with Vice News, Peterson said that women who have been abused and harassed in Hollywood — which has sparked the #MeToo movement over the past year — have contributed to their own harassment.

Peterson has been a very visible opponent to a Canadian bill outlawing discrimination based on gender identity and expression, and he got into a fiery interview with Channel 4 News in the United Kingdom that has been viewed more than 9 million times on YouTube.

Again, it’s unclear what Peterson talked about on Thursday in Seattle. However, based on his history, his book and the reaction he constantly draws on the internet, Peterson seems like a strange choice for a guest speaker — especially in a league as diverse as the NFL.

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