Jordan Peterson calls for west to 'push over' Iranian regime over misogyny, totalitarianism

Dr. Jordan B. Peterson said on Thursday's episode of his podcast, titled "The Protest in Iran and What it Means" with Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-American journalist and activist who is known for speaking out against Iran's human rights abuses, its treatment of women, and political opponents. 

Following the 90-minute interview, Peterson said, "If any of you have been particularly taken aback by this story today you can always put pen to paper and write your congressman or your senator and let them know that you're not all that happy about the situation in Iran and that if politicians got their act together and were stalwart in their opposition to this fundamentalist, totalitarian, misogynistic, brutal regime that maybe it could be pushed over and that would be a nice object lesson to totalitarian tyrants all over the world."



Peterson said one would hope the "west could get its act together in relationship to that goal." 

The episode, which was posted nearly two weeks ago, recounts Alinejad's story of growing up in Iran, being exiled, and her survival of several kidnapping attempts by the Iranian regime. 

Alinejad currently lives in exile in New York City under FBI protection since the last kidnapping ploy was foiled in 2021. 

Reactions to the comments on Twitter appeared to be negative, though the entire episode itself was positively received on YouTube. Journalist Michael Tracey said about Peterson's comments that Peterson should stick to "pronoun controversies," and said that replied to a comment that said a regime change in Iran would lead to "Iraq... but bigger."

"[A regime change in Iran would have] potential crossover ramifications for a hot war already raging in another theater that happens to involve the country with the world's largest nuclear arsinal," Tracey said, referring to the Ukrainian-Russian war.