Hi all, as my Mum is getting older (she’s 62) she increasingly spends time on Facebook and YouTube watching videos that lean towards right wing and conspiracy theory stuff. Her latest thing has been Jordan Peterson and the way he talks about trans people/pronouns/free speech. She thinks because he is a trained psychologist that he knows what he is talking about. Her critical thinking skills are getting worse as she gets older. She raised myself and my siblings to be very open minded and non-judgemental, so it’s upsetting to see her get sucked in by some of the worst people online. We live in Ireland where this stuff is rather new, so I don’t have any friends with experience of it to ask for advice.

We have a young cousin who recently spoke about feeling that they may be trans, and they are taking their time to really explore what is going on for them. I don’t think my mum knows this, so I don’t know if she’s aware that the things JP says could directly affect someone she cares about within her own family. She is also a secondary school teacher with several trans kids in her school, and I feel like teacher attitudes towards vulnerable young people like this are so important - open minded acceptance is key.

I know a big part of the problem is the time she is spending watching videos online, and that the algorithm is probably sending her all kinds of awful stuff that she’s lost the ability to think critically about. She is being influenced in a really negative way.

So I was wondering if anyone can recommend good video critiques of JP or others like him, stuff around trans people and pronouns, that I can send to her to watch. Firstly so that she can be corrected on the idea that just because he is a psychologist that what he is saying is the objective truth, and secondly so that she can see how this stuff is harmful to trans people and LGBT communities.

I think video would be best as this is the format she is most likely to engage with. I had a look around myself, but I’m not hitting the right stuff and keep getting just interviews of him talking about trans people, but I’d prefer if it was a critique breaking down his transphobia or videos from trans people talking about the impact of people like JP on their lives and community.

If anyone has recommendations, I’d really appreciate it. I’m worried about what impact social media is having on her. She very nearly got sucked in by Covid antivax stuff, but thankfully we were able to talk her out of it! I don’t know enough about Peterson myself to have a good conversation with her on it.

Edit: I just want to say thanks to everyone for all the links and advice, this has been really helpful. I’ve loads of information to arm myself with when talking to her now, and some links that she can look at or listen to herself to learn a bit more about JP’s views. I mean, ultimately it’s up to her what she chooses to believe in or think about trans people, but I feel like she should be able to at least question her sources and know whether they are a reliable source or not - she seems to be losing her capacity for critical thinking. I worry that social media is influencing her towards very negative thinking that was never part of who she was when she was younger! Hopefully with your help, I can pull her away from the more hateful side of social media.