Main ideas
Peterson's primary goal is to examine why individuals, not simply groups, engage in social conflict, and to model the path individuals take to support their belief systems i.e. ideological identification that results in pathological atrocities like the Gulag, the Auschwitz concentration camp and the Rwandan genocide. He explores the origins of evil, and also posits that an analysis of the world's religious ideas might allow us to describe our essential morality and eventually develop a universal system of morality.
Critiques of political corectness
Peterson's critiques of political correctness have widened from the preferred gender pronouns of students to broader issues such as postmodernism, postmodern feminism, white privilege, cultural appropriation, environmentalism. Writing in the National Post, Chris Selley stated that Peterson's opponents had "underestimated the fury being inspired by modern preoccupations like white privilege and cultural appropriation, and by the marginalization, shouting down or outright cancellation of other viewpoints in polite society's institutions", while in The Spectator, Tim Lott noted that Peterson became "an outspoken critic of mainstream academia". Peterson's social media presence has magnified the impact of these views, with Simona Chiose at The Globe and Mail reporting: "few University of Toronto professors in the humanities and social sciences have enjoyed the global name recognition Prof. Peterson has won".
