They’re both psychologists, clinical and academic respectively, and their subjects of interest spill over to philosophy - perhaps you could say pragmatically and theoretically respectively.
I was thinking the other day how they do have common ground on the subject of, what Zizek would call ideology, and Peterson would call stories - and this is an important subject, because it is at the core of all the political tension we’re seeing today.
I also casually entertained a kind of ranking of contemporary thinkers/youtube personalities - I’m sure there will be disagreement but I’m happy with it:
At the bottom you have ideologues like Stephan Molyneux, obvious trash.
Up from there you have competent thinkers, I thought of the not so famous guy from his channel Rationality Rules, I think his name is Simon Woodford. He’s got a solid grasp, still learning, not yet original but we’ll see - there’s probably other examples you could fit into this category.
Then you have the advanced thinkers, which I think Jordan Peterson classifies as. He’s thinking outside the box, has some original insights and is worth listening to when speaking about a number of subjects, but obviously not all.
I find Sam Harris classes as a master thinker - he appears to have considered pretty much everything that you find him talking about, and argues for his case pretty much flawlessly. He’s even pushing contemporary thought into the future.
Zizek, I’m sure plenty will disagree, I class as a genius thinker. He consistently delivers material that turns on its head even advanced thinking. He’s one of the extremely small number of people who brings up perspectives and arguments that I hadn’t even thought of.
Whilst Sam demolished Peterson in debate, I think Zizek will just exchange extended monologues with him.
Also, thank you Guide for delivering a cogently written post - if you have before I’ve missed it, but I appreciate your dispensing of the flowery nonsense on this occasion, I hope you keep it up.