Free speech is indistinguishable from thought.

Shortly after Jordan Peterson wrote 12 Rules for Life, I bought my son tickets to one of his lectures when Peterson came to Dallas with David Rubin.  I thought then, and still think, that he's an important guy and an indicator of something important happening in our times.

Afterward, Peterson lived through several years of health and emotional crises and only over the last year or so reappeared in public and started blogging, writing, and podcasting again.  Ever since his reappearance he has seemed fragile and weaker, with less verbal command than before he got sick.

This week he sat down with Peter Robinson for an interview at a forum at Stanford and it is maybe the most formidable interview I have ever seen Peterson do, certainly since before he got sick but probably ever. It is quite worth watching.

One of the subjects he takes up is his view that free speech is indistinguishable from thought and thus free speech is not merely one right among many others. It is central to human existence. Peterson has thought about this idea...a lot.

Very much worth watching.