Also, this debate is not a left wing vs right wing discussion. Many libertarian socialists (anarchists) and communists vehemently defend the right to own arms for the very same reasons right wingers defend gun ownership, and share the vision by the founding fathers -- namely to fight off tyranny.

The gun control debate is interesting to me and I am genuinely open minded to either side of the debate -- I am still on the fence regarding gun policy.

One fact seems blatantly obvious -- and has been addressed by Steven Pinker in his book regarding violence -- guns don't kill people, people kill people. This is an empirical fact.

Now, assuming that anti-intellectualism is a de facto serious issue that plagues the US, what can be done about it, and is it getting worse or better, in your opinion? — Posty McPostface

This is a prelude to national socialism enforced by progressives. Thought police is a clear sign of the decline of democracy.

What should be done? Uphold the first amendment. Free speech is necessary to any democratic society.

It is getting worse. Leftists seem to reduce their support for the first amendment. They hate free speech. They want control to implement their utopia, even if it means to destroy every human being in a holocaust ten times over.

I don't want to start this thread straight off the bat with a straw man. However, America is rife with an anti-intellectual attitude perhaps originating with American Transcendentalism/Romanticism and proceeding throughout the years under the guise of free speech and religious freedom, eventually even into the education system itself, as seen, in anti-evolutionist or creationist 'interpretations' of science. — Posty McPostface

That is correct, and anti-scientific attitude towards evolutionary psychology (all psychology should be evolutionary based), innate gender differences, IQ differences, racial differences, mental illness of transgenderism, climate change hysteria, bad-economics, bad history, genocide deniers, embracers of islamofascism (as Hitchens calls it), moral and cultural nihilism/relativism, rise of national socialistic tendencies of progressive leftists etcetera.

Are you familiar with the Prisoner's Dilemma? Now personally, I take it to be a demonstration that self-interest is not rational. — unenlightened

Then you understand it incorrectly. Prisoner's dilemma is not a demonstration of irrationality, it is the demonstration that rational behaviour can be sub-optimal, especially regarding maximising self-interest.

It is an inaccurate description of human nature, Dawkins dealt with this in his book The Selfish Gene.

Thanks for this platitude Benkei.

Positive freedom (or liberty) is such a leftist joke, I am not sure how people can morally defend this incoherent twaddle. The conservative Roger Scruton also fell for this. Inequality is not a problem, and even if it is, capitalism has made the world more equal according to the HDI, which actually include your silly 'positive liberty' measurement, contributed by Amartya Sen en Nussbaum. It is basically entitlement to other's resources, but packed in intellectual nipple massaging gestures. It is greed intellectualised.

Anyway, you have not addressed Peterson's point regarding 'taking responsibility' (or 'growing up'). Which means, that if you have any moral responsibility at all, it is to improve yourself (whatever that may mean) and take charge of your own life and its direct surroundings -- hence his remark of 'cleaning thy room'. It is basically Aristotelian Viritue ethics in modern clothes. If you want to change the world, start by changing yourself. Reflect on your own characteristics.

I am not even a fan of Peterson, I just have watched some videos.

Thank God that intellectuals have little to no power.

Progressives and their 'soft' push for eugenics... next thing will be: 'should mentally retards be able to reproduce'. :groan:

What a mess...
First of all, what Marx has to do with this, I have no idea. I dislike conspiratorial thinking, whether it is from the left (Noam Chomsky) or right (Alex Jones).

As the Buddhists say, life is suffering — Agustino

No. One could argue that one of Buddhist tenets is that desire is the main source of suffering and the strategy of life ought to eliminate desire, which will eliminate suffering.

But Buddhism also preaches the importance of being grateful, something underrated among young progressives.

Now, I haven't watched the video in full, but I have heard Peterson. He is a good psychologist, but his philosophy is mediocre at best. His love your Jung is something I don't get. His beef with post modernism is something most agree, even Chomsky.

Let's be fair, there is no 'true' leftist among American political officials -- thank god for that.. And I don't consider Bernie a socialist, regardless whatever he calls himself. Nor do I consider Trump a right winger (or conservative). Trump has no (coherent nor consistent) ideology. His opinion is more changeable than the weather. The Republicans take him seriously, but not literally, the Democrats take him literally, but seriously. Trump is not the president the USA needs, but probably the president the democrats deserve.