Peterson's 12 Rules For Life, have you heard of this?

[The Grand Nudger]

What is historical, institutional, and societal racism, how does it even work, and is it even real? 

You didn't answer the question.  I know that's because you feel the answer is obvious.  But if you don't mind, I'd still like you to answer it anyway-- who, exactly, is oppressing whom?

As obvious as the answer is to you, I hope.  No one in particular can be pointed to as being responsible for this, if we're talking about the larger phenomenon - because it's a function of how our society and how our government has been arranged going back centuries.  We are all responsible.  The United States of America.  Greatest country in the world.  Can-do anything.  We fail to properly educate each other and ourselves regarding the subject, we fail to take meaningful action, we fail to hold our institutions accountable in even a fraction of the measure our institutions hold us accountable.  

If we're talking about individual acts of racism, discrimination, downright oppression..or the inadvertent normalization of racism..then, obviously, the fucking individuals involved.

Maybe you're right.  I started at birth as a blank slate, and have built my views based on my experiences, including my social interactions, and things I've seen on public media throughout my life.

However, I think much the same as you, about you.  I think the PC Left has so convinced you to accept it part and parcel, and to organize everything in terms of "us vs. Nazi," that you are toeing the party line, even where it involves a deliberate attempt to limit free speech.  I think that in your well-meaning desire to minimize oppression, you have been subscribed to a group which intends to establish a new kind of oppression.

OFC I'm the same as you in that regard..and I wasn't always such a stickler for this issue.  I might have a better ear for it because I was raised to be and act white, by a racist.  The difference between us in this context, is that I am aware of the origins and nature of some of your comments and positions and you are not.  

Please talk to me more about imaginary oppression.   Somebody tryin to abrogate your rights, lol?  Who told you that?  Peterson...lol.  

Free speech is not consequence free speech, none of our rights are a suicide pact...and they do not automatically overrule some other persons rights.  

I don't think Peterson is that far off, actually.  Once a new dogma is established, and the consequences for not espousing it 100% become severe enough (jobs threatened, for example, or social status), then those in a position of power will be able to abuse that fact to control the population.

Back to making excuses for the loon.  Give me my money.  

Please get this point.  So long as intolerance is allowable, it doesn't matter what ideas were considered so sacrosanct to enact it-- it will be used to great effect by the wolves at the top of the food chain, to keep the sheeple at each other's throats while they profit.

How does it feel to be a sheep of white supremacists at the bottom and the top? Not good, judging by your responses in this thread. Well...there's a door, all you have to do is walk through it and you'll be out from under their thumb.