/sci/ - Science & Math

>>10238089
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2018/06/04/jordan-peterson-needs-to-reconsider-the-lobster/?utm_term=.bb1822335ef5


By Bailey Steinworth
Bailey Steinworth is a third-year Ph.D. student studying evolutionary developmental biology at the University of Florida Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience.

>According to Peterson, there is an “unspeakably primordial calculator, deep within you, at the very foundation of your brain, far below your thoughts and feelings,” that “monitors exactly where you are positioned in society.” In other words, no matter how sophisticated we humans believe ourselves to be, deep down, we’re supposedly motivated by the same drive for dominance as lobsters. Want to “embark on the voyage of your life, let your light shine, so to speak, on the heavenly hill, and pursue your rightful destiny”? Assume the upright posture of the biggest, baddest lobster on the reef, or as Peterson says, “Look for your inspiration to the victorious lobster, with its 350 million years of practical wisdom. Stand up straight, with your shoulders back.”

>I’m a marine biologist, and despite my deeply held affection for all marine invertebrates, I confess I was a little puzzled by Peterson’s fixation on lobsters. It’s not that he gets the science wrong, exactly, just that his choice is a little too convenient. The facts he identifies do arguably square with his own “stand up straight with your shoulders back” advice. But in asking us to consider the lobster, he’s cherry-picking one model of social behavior when there’s a whole ocean full of equally relevant examples.

Bring up dumb science example, get smacked in science board. He should go back to be motivational speaker for incels