Jordan Peterson has long maintained that Western universities have grown coddled, soft, and resistant to heterodox thinking, so recently he set out to create a college of his own. The Peterson Academy is unaccredited, and exists entirely in cyberspace. The sign-up fee is $499, renewed annually, and anyone who applies is automatically enrolled. In the flagship class, “Intro to Nietzsche,” Peterson stands in the middle of a white, CGI-rendered void reminiscent of Catholic purgatory. Several rows of students, notebooks in hand, sit in silence on his left and right, while a red digitized banner hangs overhead. Two words are written across it, summing up Peterson’s current talking point: “NIHILISTIC DOOM.”
Intro to Nietzsche consists of eight lectures, and as of this writing, it is the only course at the Peterson Academy taught by the man himself. In substance, the class has much in common with Peterson’s own lengthy YouTube videos, where he flexes a scholarly fluency in 20th-century philosophy, tilted toward the hectoring of his enduring bugaboos. (The Woke Mind Virus, the specter of cultural Marxism, the very existence of “gender identity,” and so on.) The course is void of a syllabus or a regimented set of readings, papers, or comprehensive testing, which is to say that in being a student here, you won’t do the typical grunt work of mainstream higher education. There is an optional multiple-choice quiz available at the end of each session, but that, too, fails to match the rigors of genuine scholarship. One sample question: “What famous statement did Nietzsche make about God?” The answer is not B., which reads, “God is alive and well.”
For the uninitiated, Jordan Peterson is a former clinical psychologist turned manosphere influencer who, in recent years, has become a leading voice in the masculinity-obsessed Podcast Right. He has over 8 million subscribers on YouTube, is friendly with Elon Musk, and has recently been appearing alongside Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In a sizzle reel on his YouTube channel, where Peterson outlines his motivation for starting the academy, he chronicles a familiar blend of broadly popular gripes with other, more mainstream forms of higher education—the tuition prices are too high—alloyed with Fox News–style whinging about the State Of The Youth. (Too much “groupthink,” and, of course, too many students protesting the war in Gaza.)
The alleged downfall of the American campus has become a popular enough cause in elite conservative circles—the spaces that were once broadly known as the Intellectual Dark Web—that the Peterson Academy is actually the second unaccredited college with roots in this sanctum to begin accepting students in 2024. The first was the University of Austin, founded by Republican megadonor Joe Lonsdale and New York Times editor–turned–gadfly Bari Weiss, and convened—unlike Peterson’s school, in meatspace—in Texas this fall. (A Peterson Academy spokesperson said that the school, which they described as being “in beta” right now, is indeed “hoping” for accreditation and has “interest from accrediting bodies,” but added, “we’re not going to alter the way we educate people in order to fit into an outdated system.”)
Both of these institutions are an attempt to conjure a university-like product for a university-suspicious population. The Peterson Academy gestures toward big ideas while stripping out all of the tedious labor that typically happens in the classroom. It is impossible to flunk, but some would argue that it is also impossible to meaningfully learn. I’m not sure that will matter to people looking to sign up for this. Complete the coursework, and the academy claims you can develop “the sophistication necessary to make you disciplined, educated, innovative, critically-minded, socially attractive, and economically viable—and … without taking on a crippling burden of debt.” Frankly, given the dire reputation higher education currently has across party lines in the U.S., I wouldn’t be surprised if that pitch finds an audience.
The Peterson Academy launched with 16 classes, and each of them are parceled out, on average, in eight-hour-long bingeable lectures—all of which are filmed in the same negative space where Peterson delivered his remarks on Nihilistic Doom. There are no office hours, nor is there any serious grading, though some of those benchmarks are set to be rolled out in the “months” ahead. (A spokesperson said that “an essay feature, assignments relevant to the course, and timed final exams depending on the course” are on their way.)
The other professors share aspects of Peterson’s worldview. A course titled “Deconstructing Decolonization” is taught not by a historian, but by an Anglican priest and Ph.D. theologian named Nigel Biggar, who frequently refers to his native United Kingdom with the deferential personal pronoun “she.” “Introduction to Nutrition” is not taught by a doctor, but instead by author Max Lugavere, who is best known for his questionable promulgation of the idea that a vegan diet can lead to a higher risk of dementia. (Peterson, famously, has espoused an all-beef diet in the past.) “The Boy Crisis” is taught by Warren Farrell, a political scientist and men’s rights activist with a bibliography that includes books like The Myth of Male Power. (Farrell frequently cites video game addiction as one of the paramount blights that has befallen the self-esteem of the modern man.) The curriculum feels, to me, oddly pinched and narrow, unlike a well-rounded liberal education in arts and sciences, which is ostensibly the tradition that the college believes has become corroded.
The academy spokesperson disagreed with my analysis, saying the school was conceived “so students have a social and educational experience that’s focused on self-improvement and openness, dialogue and debate, rather than politics.” The claim brings to mind a common refrain in Peterson circles—this idea that progressives have moved on from natural truth—but as it stands, in beta, the academy seems exclusively transfixed by the heady, interpretive arenas of education. The site, as of now, contains no classes about computational chemistry, mathematics, physics, or most other subjects that can’t be refracted by the culture war. (The spokesperson said that some STEM courses would be coming in the next six months.)
Even the school’s more inert offerings manage to slyly convey their partisan leanings. A “Great Leaders in History” course, taught by conservative British pop-history author Andrew Roberts, lumps Margaret Thatcher in with Pericles. The Peterson Academy loudly proclaims a blindness of ideology. But is anyone buying that story in 2024?
Well, I suppose some people are. The Peterson Academy’s website is home to a light social media apparatus that functions like a Facebook wall for the student body. It is here where you can come face to face with a global community that has, for whatever reason, decided that Peterson and his people can lead them to enlightenment in a way that other schools can’t. So, when I paid my $499, I expected to be plunged into a network of reactionary cranks, pickled by cynicism and innately distrustful of all outsiders who haven’t consumed reams of Petersonian scholarship. But while I did find elements of that tribalism, the people who’ve paid for this school are largely earnest about its promise of higher education, and are thrilled to finally attend what they’ve decided to call college.
One student in particular—an older woman who made one of the first posts I saw on the platform—hammered that point home. She mentioned that she could never afford university enrollment, but was more than capable of budgeting for the Peterson Academy. From her perspective, the doors of the elite have been unlocked for the first time in her life.
“I’m certain my mind may explode,” she wrote. “Thanks to Dr. Peterson [for allowing us] to enhance our understanding, knowledge, and wisdom.”
The Peterson Academy’s content may carry the stench of anxieties that have simmered for far too long—I think I speak for a lot of people when I say I’d rather lose a limb than listen to someone grouse about DEI policy on The Joe Rogan Experience for the umpteenth time—but from my vantage point, that revanchism has yet to curdle the students themselves. There is an enthusiasm for enlightenment here—a shared, life-giving understanding that one can always become sharper and better through the pursuit of knowledge—that inspires some hope for the future of education in these dark times.
The MAGA years have been marked by an unprecedented curtailing of the humanities, with red states slashing their public universities’ liberal arts programs to ribbons. The justifications for this rollback range from bloodless budgetary concerns to the idea that campuses are brainwashing their students with Marxist propaganda and therefore must be destroyed. But here, in the Peterson Academy—supposedly the nexus of the college-skeptical movement—I’ve found folks who are, indeed, thrilled to sit through a class about Nietzsche, a sentiment that represents the polar opposite of the reactionary recommendation to “learn to code.” Maybe if we could untangle the political bifurcation that has completely destroyed our ability to communicate about the purpose of college, we’d all come to the stirring realization that there is nothing more human than the desire to learn. We’re not that different!
But that good feeling was never meant to last, because I’m proud to announce that I am among the first people to become expelled by the Peterson Academy. Here are the events as I can best recount them. I wanted to interview a few of the students who signed up for the school and hear, in their own words, what made them fans of Peterson. So I made a post on the man’s official subreddit, seeking out my fellow scholars. (The academy itself does not support private messaging, making communication with fellow students tricky, thus forcing me to turn to external platforms.) My post went largely ignored, but days later, I received an email from the school informing me that my $499 had been refunded. I tried logging back into the academy, and sure enough, my account had been terminated, too. I figured that an enterprising Peterson Academy official saw my Reddit query and made the effort to excise my presence from this hallowed sanctum of free speech, which is as ironic as it is predictable. A clause in the Terms of Service asserts that any student who “disparages, tarnishes, or otherwise harms” the academy may face consequences. Sure enough, after I emailed the company, my suspicion was confirmed.
“We do appreciate your interest in Peterson Academy, however your attempt to interview our students caused complaints amongst our students who are focused on education,” read the response from the academy team. “Providing them with a platform focused on learning from our courses and their peers is our top priority, so we removed your access and issued a full refund.”
Who knows? Maybe I’ll appeal and get reinstated so I can complete the remainder of my Nietzsche quizzes and fully internalize Peterson Thought. Until then, I wish nothing but the best to my fellow students. They want to know more about the world, and that alone is something to work with. All that’s left is for them to find a teacher who isn’t Jordan Peterson.
