I'm not sure it's that calculated. Remember that he grew up in Alberta, and thus likely had a conservative background. As I showed in my series on conservatism, any conservative intellectual will have to scramble to rationalize the indefensible (i.e. the social Darwinian, anti-modern core of his or her values and ideology). It's more likely a case of self-deceit than of pure cynical manipulation, although there are certainly conservative charlatans such as some of the commentators on Fox News.

I have three more articles on Peterson coming out this week and perhaps the next. The last one will delve into his motivations.