Neo-Sophists

I noticed that there is an increased interest in philosophy, maybe because of more accessible podcasts and books. But within this interest there is also a tendency for there to be a faux-philosophy intermixed with spirituality. Prime examples of people engaging in this is Jordan Peterson and other gurus in the podcast world. They engage in a sort of linguistic jam, where they keep riffing on each others observations by introducing and talking about how it relates to other philosophical concepts. The linguistic jam is kept at a very high level for it to sound profound too, but when you unwrap what is actually said, the jam rings very hollow and many times turns out to be completely wrong, yet is used to justify all kinds of wild beliefs. Prime examples of people engaging in this is Jordan Peterson and other gurus in the guru-sphere, but I have also seen it in circles I have been in and it has been people on the entire political spectrum.

This linguistic jam seems to be very similar to what the sophists were criticized for. The sophists were often criticized for being wordsmiths. Plato described them as shadows of true and atheletes in a contest of words. Sounds a bit familiar. Plato also wanted to make a distinction between a philosopher and sophist, where a sophist is one that made his living through deception.

I guess these faux-philosophers I talk about are more about keeping the vibe going more than gaining power, but you can definitely argue that these modern gurus make their living through deception.