It almost goes without saying that the process for applying for a job within Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s would-be Department of Health and Human Services is likely to be bizarre. President-elect Donald Trump did tell him to “go wild,” after all. There are a few ways to try and get yourself noticed for a potential gig: Through sending an email ranking your top three favorite HHS agencies; getting upvoted on Kennedy’s Reddit-esque crowdsourced “Nominees for the People” site; and now, through a lengthy, bizarre survey.
The first round of the “application”—which is not hosted on a government URL, nor necessarily for any specific government (or private-sector) jobs—is essentially a supersized vocabulary quiz-cum-personality assessment that appears to have been developed by none other than Jordan Peterson, the conservative “self-help” personality. Throughout dozens of questions, which an intro paragraph tells users will take about 90 minutes and warns that “It is best to complete it when you are well-rested, have recently eaten, and will not be disturbed,” the application asks users to share their multiple-choice feelings on things like clairvoyance, interest in “sexual experiences with another person,” and knowledge of words like “grudge,” “aphrodisiacal,” “clandestine,” and “accomplice.”
Peterson is a former psychology professor turned conservative commentator, whom Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently testified under oath was on a Russian bankroll to spread propaganda for the state. (Peterson denied the accusation and said that he hasn’t been paid by Russia, “not ever in the past and not now.”) Peterson’s philosophical output has been described as a gateway drug for budding far-right conservatives; years ago Kanye West was known to be a fan. Olivia Wilde said that she based Chris Pine’s creepy cult-leader character in Don’t Worry Darling on Peterson, calling him “this pseudo-intellectual hero to the incel community.” (Peterson moaned to Piers Morgan about it on air but also accepted it with a, “sure, why not?”) Peterson’s 2018 book 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, has sold more than 10 million copies and preaches a sort of bootstrappy individualism. He also published a sequel, Beyond Order: 12 More Rules For Life, in 2021. When the Canadian arm of Penguin Random House announced that it would publish the follow-up, dozens of the publisher’s staffers submitted anonymous complaints and several quit in protest.
Among Peterson’s ventures are a variety of personality assessments published under different names: There’s the Self Authoring Program, Understand Myself, and ExamCorp, Inc., the latter of which he has been associated with since 1995, according to his LinkedIn profile and the Florida Department of State, where the company is registered and in good standing.
The company’s name appears in unobtrusive font at the bottom of the login page for Kennedy’s application. A Kennedy spokesperson has confirmed to reporters the application legit and open for anyone with an email address to take.
Considering the cast of characters already gracing the second Trump administration’s playbill, Peterson’s apparent involvement in Kennedy’s candidate screening process isn’t the most surprising, but it’s still alarming, given his Pied Piper persona for young, disenfranchised men. Though he called out Kennedy’s “somewhat conspiratorial mindset” in a video titled “My Honest Opinion of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,” Peterson is an apparent RFK Jr. ally. He raised a stink in 2023 when YouTube removed an interview he posted with Kennedy, the platform saying that the video violated “YouTube’s general vaccine misinformation policy,” and Peterson accusing YouTube in turn of trying to “actively interfere with a presidential election campaign.” (Don’t worry, they had a take two, which is still online.)
According to Peterson’s philosophy, white privilege doesn’t exist, and he should not have to acknowledge transgender people by their proper pronouns. He’s had to clarify that he’s not anti-feminist, no, he’s pro-individualist—and it just so happens that his view of individualism looks an awful lot like anti-feminism. He thinks the 1950s were dandy! With the power of a massive platform and a pseudo-academic vocabulary to bolster legitimacy, it becomes clearer how dangerous Peterson is, and the perils of filtering potential government decision-makers through a lens of his making.
Representatives for Peterson and Kennedy did not respond to Vanity Fair’s requests for comment.
