Elite Lies and Luxury Beliefs | Rob Henderson | EP 429

Dr. Jordan Peterson speaks with best-selling author, Air Force veteran, and psychologist Rob Henderson. They discuss his recent memoir “Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family and Social Class” and go through Rob’s tumultuous upbringing within the California foster care system, the lived and observed transformations of social status and class as he ascended to Yale and Cambridge, how his thoughts on family structure and “luxury beliefs” developed, and why bookstores won’t host him for his tour.

Rob Henderson grew up in foster homes in Los Angeles and in the rural town of Red Bluff, California. He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force at the age of seventeen. Following his enlistment, he attended Yale on the G.I. Bill and was subsequently awarded the Gates Cambridge Scholarship to study at the University of Cambridge, where he obtained a PhD in psychology in 2022. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal and Quillette, among other outlets, and his Substack newsletter is sent each week to more than 50,000 subscribers.

This episode was recorded on February 25th, 2024

- Chapters -

(0:00) Tour info 2024
(0:39) Coming up
(1:07) Intro
(3:19) Life since publishing “Troubled,” canceled by bookstores
(10:54) An outline of Rob’s memoir
(16:56) Realizing what he didn’t want to become
(19:16) Joining the military
(22:44) Criminality among men, the importance of role models
(26:34) How environment impacts academic success
(30:04) Responding to momentary incentives versus planning for the long-term
(33:48) The impact of scheduled chores and genuine responsibility
(39:41) Learning to read at age 7
(44:34) Instability and disorder: “The first response was to medicalize it”
(49:36) The military offers steep consequences, but also steep rewards
(54:07) The deterioration of working class families
(58:46) “Luxury Beliefs” and manic Marxism
(1:07:15) The positive feedback loop of weaponized marginalization
(1:10:58) The only form of victimization that elite students won’t disclose
(1:13:46) People will actively identify with a new sexuality, but run from their sexual history
(1:17:39) The rise of dark tetrad traits and their correlation with a victim mentality
(1:22:22) Reputation matters deeply to most people, don’t let yours be exploited
(1:25:20) Why psychopaths constantly need new victims
(1:26:40) Consequence-free dating, predatory sexuality, Cabaret, Pinocchio
(1:31:20) Why people support or oppose populism
(1:34:55) The tendency for those who rally on behalf of the poor to sacrifice them
(1:37:54) Education is not a substitute for a stable family
(1:43:54) The dark difference between wealth and status