You might try Noam chomsky

Big topics! He's not going to teach you about those things - he can be criticised on purely factual grounds. If you just read fiction from different time periods you'll soon see what Peterson is claiming plain isn't true (this isn't about political divides, rightwingers here in the UK would extremely rarely be taken in by him, just because here we tend to be exposed to more history), and I think you'll learn about people, too.

If the references to mythology Peterson makes appeal to you, then it may also help you start picking more of those up, and you could read about it directly. Maybe even a book about Roman civilisation - I wanted to know more about that and felt a bit confused/overwhelmed, found SPQR is really accessible while containing loads of information.

Maybe you can narrow the topics down further, to a specific area of interest?

Peterson makes comments like "women are the gatekeepers of sex, men are the gatekeepers of relationships" he also refuses to to use pronouns to support trans students. This put me off him. There are alot of YouTube videos he does to get an idea if he is your cup of tea.

[removed]

He's not even close to a good source for political or sociological discourse. He thinks he knows a lot, but he's frequently just making stuff up based on vague ideas about Marxism and Post-Modernism, both of which he doesn't understand. His psychology stuff is better (he's a psychologist) but, as others have said, it's mostly outdated, and rather vapid, self-help nonsense. I wouldn't recommend others in that genre because it's a genre that invites and celebrates vapid nonsense.

Lmao that’s a great way to build a world view entirely on bullshit. “I only read things by people who are so wrong about what they’re saying that there’s public backlash over it”. I swear people like you work hard every day to make yourselves dumber.

[removed]

Beyond good and evil is probably the easiest one to read first. He is a very polemic writer, and purposefully so, it might be difficult to understand what he means exactly or to misinterpret him, so you gotta read carefully and look for some context and diverse commentary on his writings.

When I travel I like to check out the used bookstores in whatever city/town I'm in. Besides the fact that they're all unique and worth checking out for their own sake, it's a way to explore neighborhoods you otherwise would have no reason to visit. Often the selection of books will reflect specific things about the community, too, which makes sense since the inventory is largely stuff locals have sold to the store. I remember a store in Bozeman that had a whole section of fiction by authors from Montana (and/or set in Montana). Good stuff, mostly, too.

You can find great stores in college towns too. Boulder, Berkeley, Bloomington, Burlington... probably some cities that don't begin with "B"... One that sticks out in memory was in Lawrence, Kansas. Can't recall the name, but a small, cute store with an interesting collection and good prices. I try to keep bookmarks from the store with whatever I purchased there.

[deleted]

The notion that you have to understand immediately what you are reading is nonsense. If you don't understand it don't let it hold you back. Great works of art should be enjoyed more than once. Great poetry can leave you confused on the first read but that should invite you to read it more and more. Great poetry sustains thousands of readings. Shakespeare's canon is absolutely endless. The more readings done the better you'll understand and that is fine. Blood Meridian will sustain me for the rest of my life. I will read it at least once a year and keep finding new things to take away from it. Now don't be discouraged and just read the book. Also stay off the internet because it sounds like you know too much about BM before diving into and there is an endless amount of spoilers here. I read it cold, I had no idea what I was in for. And honestly, all books and films, music and art, should be experienced cold.

I like to listen to smooth jazz.

For real - incels pop out of the wood work to defend this no talent ass clown

for someone cancelled... he sure does not shut up. Just another buzzword used to gain the right wings sympathy and get more sales.

Which Dune? In case you don’t know, Toto did the soundtrack for the first one.

[removed]

I liked his books. He is not groundbreaking, but he has some interesting insights and findings.

He is worth examining yourself, as is every author who gets cancelled or blocked. Whenever there is a movement to silence an author, I try to read what they have to say.

[removed]

I love librarything lol. I use it strictly to keep track of my books and don't pay attention to the graphs, recs, or anything.. I find books easier to add and catalogue on that site. I like to tag them, too; I don't enjoy tagging things on goodreads (obviously I use goodreads too, but don't enjoy it). I also like that librarything is less Social.

Peterson cites authors a lot, you can read Jung, Piaget, Nietzsche and others he keeps mentioning, he does a decent job at summing up some of their ideas, but he obviously has his bias in putting it all together on his own model/grand theory, so he is not an unbiased secondary source (well no one is, so that is why you should check the wiki and other secondary sources on those authors for context, but then read their books directly as well)

[deleted]

That's the problem with his kind of shtick! It draws people in because you can read into his work as much as you need to actually find a point. It is very hard to debunk when the person actually wants to believe.

That used to be how many independent bookstores used to be. So much Bach, Vivaldi, Beethoven, and Holst.

[removed]

I get all the internet hate when I say something similar online. You should see how many folks claim that he saved their lives