University of Toronto psychology professor Jordan Peterson just landed a deal with Penguin Random House Canada to release his new book titled “Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life,” which will come out in March 2021. The cancel culture, however, has deemed Peterson to be an icon of hate speech, transphobia, and white supremacy, leading many employees to file anonymous complaints and pressure the company into canceling Peterson’s book deal. The left is always angry at someone.
There are no credible examples of Peterson radicalizing conservatives or making bigoted comments. It all stems from a vocal opposition he had with the Canadian Government over Bill C-16. It was introduced by the Canadian government and looking to put an end to gender discrimination by forcing people to use preferred pronouns when addressing members of the LGBTQ community.
Any form of “government-mandated speech” is in direct opposition to Canada’s free speech rights. Peterson argued that it had nothing to do with transphobia and everything to do with leading down a path of radical policing in everyday speech. He called it a “slippery slope,” but the radical left doesn’t see it that way.
““The company since June has been doing all these anti-racist and allyship things and then publishing Peterson’s book completely goes against this. It just makes all of their previous efforts seem completely performative,” a PRHC employee said.
Others agreed that they are not proud to work for a company that has decided to publish him. One employee even noted that Peterson “radicalized” their father, while another said that the publishing of this book would “negatively affect” their non-binary friend. Some even preferred that they consider donating the profits from Peterson’s book to LGBTQ organizations.
If publishing a person’s book gets employees that upset, perhaps they should look into a different field. The idea that we must all agree to the same beliefs and ideas is the poisonous core of the cancel culture.
Penguin Random House Canada called a town hall to provide a space for employees to discuss Peterson’s book deal and express their views, as well as offer any feedback. They defended the decision to publish someone who is popular with conservative ideas and indicated in a company statement that they remain committed to publishing a range of voices and viewpoints.
Open dialogue is the only way to change people’s opinions and the suppression of free speech does not lead to a more “diverse” and “exclusive” community. In fact, it does the quite opposite. It leads to a uniformed society with filtered dialogue. Everyone seems to forget the phrase “agree to disagree.”
Republicans seem to be the only people defending free speech these days
