Publishing Staff Protest New Jordan Peterson Book

Several staff at Penguin Randomhouse Canada and many people online are protesting the forthcoming book from Jordan Peterson, Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life. A Canadian clinical psychologist and professor, Peterson is best known as an “Intellectual Dark Web” icon, famous for his 2016 Youtube series, “Professor Against Political Correctness,” decrying gender-neutral pronouns and bathrooms.

For that reason, Vice reported today that several “sobbing” publishing staff confronted higher-ups about the decision to publish Peterson’s next book. Management defended the decision in a Town Hall meeting last monday.

“He is an icon of hate speech and transphobia and the fact that he’s an icon of white supremacy, regardless of the content of his book, I’m not proud to work for a company that publishes him,” an employee told VICE World News.

Twitter naturally echoed the staffers’ protests, because that’s what Twitter does, sharing fears of Peterson’s  incel-adjacent perspective.

“jordan peterson comes from a long line of sickos who go out and write self help books to exploit vulnerable people in need of guidance when they fit that category perfectly,” tweeted Hasan Piker, who later quoted Peterson in an interview with Tucker Carlson as saying, “If you have your children in a school, and [teachers] talk about equity in class—equity, diversity, white privilege, systemic racism, any of that—you take your children out of that class.”

“Every douchebag who tries to convince me that patriarchy is good actually, because it’s the natural order of things, supports their argument with a youtube link to Jordan Peterson,” tweeted user @emrazz.

Peterson’s controversial book is a follow-up to the 2018 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, a series of self-help essays founded in the idea of inherent human suffering. With chapter titles like “Stand up straight with your shoulders back” and “Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street”, it was a win for stern dads everywhere. Dorian Lynsky, who writes for The Guardian, says Peterson’s book is “riddled with pseudo-facts and conspiracy theories.”

Beyond Order offers a similar schtick, including the details of the author’s recent health and addiction issues.

“ONLY Jordan Peterson could go on an all-beef diet, develop a hardcore benzo addiction, spend 8 days in a medically induced coma, and then wake up as someone I don’t want to hang out with,” tweeted comedian Rachel McCartney.

“so Jordan Peterson wrote a book called ‘12 Rules For Life’ and then immediately got hooked on benzos and nearly died and then popped back up saying he’s got 12 more rules,” wrote comedy account The Law Boy. “lmao thanks bro but i think i’m good.”

“If jordan peterson doesn’t come out of his troubling times with any kind of increased awareness of and empathy for the fact that sometimes awful shit just happens to people and fucks up their whole lives, yeah that actually would kinda suck,” wrote user @BigJoel in a thread.

It’s worth noting that as of January 2019, Peterson has sold over three million copies of 12 Rules for Life. He’s doing fine. But Peterson’s supporters are decrying this attempted act of censorship and say those who are protesting Peterson’s work are the exact people who’d benefit from it.

“All those people at Penguin blubbering about Jordan Peterson’s new book–how on earth did they get jobs?” tweeted user Helen Dale, who later suggested this could be a marketing ploy. “People who turn into a puddle at first sight of disagreeable views are unsuited to work in publishing. Realistically, they’re probably unsuited to work.”

“If you think Jordan Peterson is ‘far right’ then you either haven’t read his work or haven’t understood it. If you start crying because he’s written a book, & call for it to be cancelled, you’re not behaving like an adult,” said writer Andrew Doyle. “In either case, you shouldn’t be working in publishing.”

“Jordan Peterson is not for everyone. But he has helped many men suffering from depression, anxiety, and unresolved anger issues. The mental health industry has become feminized, so his voice is desperately needed,” tweeted supporter Borowski.