Jordan Peterson Says He Would ‘Rather Die’ Than Delete Tweet About ‘Trans’ Actress Ellen Page
In April, Elon Musk offered to purchased Twitter for the small sum of $44 billion. Since then, many individuals have speculated that Twitter may become more accepting and open to free speech with the potential change in ownership.
But so far, the facts have yet to bear that out.
Last week, Dr. Jordan Peterson had his account suspended from Twitter.
Dr. Peterson is an outspoken Canadian clinical psychologist, author and professor emeritus at the University of Toronto.
He is the author of two bestselling books, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, and Beyond Order: 12 Mores Rules for Life, and he has become wildly popular on YouTube, particularly for giving young men tough but helpful, fatherly advice.
In his tweet, Dr. Peterson had written a response to an article, and mentioned actress Ellen Page, who now considers herself a man, and goes by the name Elliot. Page used to be in a lesbian relationship with Emma Portner.
On Twitter, Dr. Peterson wrote, “Remember when pride was a sin? And Ellen Page just had her breasts removed by a criminal physician.”
In response, Peterson’s account was suspended for violating Twitter’s rules against “hateful conduct.”
“You may not promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease,” Twitter told Dr. Peterson.
The company then prompted him to delete the Tweet, thereby acknowledging that he had violated Twitter’s rules, and agree to censor himself by removing the post.
For the record, this is the same Twitter rule which The Daily Citizen ran into last year, when we had our account suspended from Twitter.
According to the overlords over at Twitter, an individual violates their speech codes and their rules against “hateful conduct” when someone “misgenders” or “deadnames” a person who identifies as transgender.
It seems Dr. Peterson violated the provision against “deadnaming” when he referred to Page’s original name, Ellen, rather than her new name, Elliot; it also seems he violated the provision against “misgendering” when he referred to Page using the female pronoun “her.”
In response to Twitter’s censorship, Dr. Peterson then released a video on Instagram and YouTube in which he said, “The suspension will not be lifted unless I delete the hateful tweet in question. And I would rather die than do that.”
“It is clearly the case that I did not promote violence against or threaten anyone,” Dr. Peterson said.
Speaking out against so-called “deadnaming,” a buzzword that transgender activists use, Dr. Peterson said the following:
That doesn’t exist by the way, that deadname category, except in the sensorial and addled minds of a tiny fraction of insanely narcissistic and increasingly dangerous trans activists.
He is exactly right.
Dr. Peterson spent much of the video going through the three main parts of his original tweet, explaining why he said them, and why its illogical for Twitter to censor him for what he said.
He concluded his video by standing by his pronouncement that he would not remove the Tweet.
“I’m not taking down that tweet, or acknowledging that my tweet violated the Twitter rules,” Dr. Peterson said. “We’ll see who cancels who … It’s a relief, in some real sense, to be banned. And I regard it under the present conditions as a badge of honor.”
Dr. Peterson’s nearly 15-minute-long response has since received over 2.7 million views on YouTube.
You can watch his full response below:
Since Dr. Peterson’s suspension, Twitter has gone on a second censorship spree, now suspending gay-identified Dave Rubin, a political commentator.
Rubin had tweeted, “The insanity continues at Twitter. @jordanbpeterson has been suspended for this tweet about Ellen Page. He just told me he will ‘never’ delete the tweet. Paging @elonmusk…”
We’ll see what happens with Musk’s offer to buy Twitter and whether his ownership will restore a semblance of free speech to a platform that is ostensibly open to everyone.
In our modern “cancel culture,” it’s become ever more difficult to speak the truth. Sometimes doing so gets you “cancelled” on social platforms, losing the ability to speak at all on those platforms in the future.
Thankfully, Dr. Peterson isn’t afraid to speak the truth.
That quality of brave, bold, masculine leadership is what’s needed in today’s culture – and it’s in rare supply.
Hear, hear for Dr. Peterson.
And while we’re discussing Dr. Peterson, consider praying for him. Though not a Christian currently, he has recently made several statements that seem to indicate an openness to Christianity.
Pray he may continue to be drawn to God’s grace, and place his faith in Jesus Christ.
Related articles:
It’s Official: Elon Musk Buys Twitter in Potentially Massive Victory for Free Speech
Elon Musk Becomes Twitter’s Largest Shareholder, Vows Changes
Jordan Peterson Tweets Strong Defense of Masculinity
Jordan Peterson ‘Shocked’ by Comparison to Captain America’s Red Skull Villain
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Zachary Mettler is a writer/analyst for the Daily Citizen at Focus on the Family. In his role, he writes about current political issues, U.S. history, political philosophy, and culture. Mettler earned his Bachelor’s degree from William Jessup University and is an alumnus of the Young Leaders Program at The Heritage Foundation. In addition to the Daily Citizen, his written pieces have appeared in the Daily Wire, the Washington Times, the Washington Examiner, Newsweek, Townhall, the Daily Signal, the Christian Post, Charisma News and other outlets.
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