These days, speaking one’s thoughts can be treacherous — especially on social media.
Case in point: Clinical psychologist and best-selling author Jordan Peterson has been suspended for a comment concerning transgender actor Elliot Page.
As posted to Twitter by Jordan’s daughter, Mikhaila, on June 22nd, the Canadian intellectual tweeted the following remark about former Ellen now-Elliot:
“Remember when pride was a sin? And Ellen Page just had her breasts removed by a criminal physician.”
A screenshot provided by Mikhaila indicates Jordan violated the Bluebird’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.
“We have determined that this account violated the Twitter Rules,” the explanation reads.
As a result, we’ve temporarily limited some of your account features. While in this state…you’re limited to only sending Direct Messages… Your account will be restored to full functionality in: 12 hours and 0 minutes.
You can start your countdown and continue to Twitter once you delete the content that violates our rules.
Wow. @jordanbpeterson got a twitter strike. No more twitter until he deletes the tweet. Definitely not a free speech platform at the moment @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/YuBTwnjz5W
— Mikhaila Peterson (@MikhailaFuller) June 29, 2022
There’s a reason they call it the “thought police.” Such a characterization was once ubiquitously used as a figure of speech. But these days, we’re boldly regulated regarding the notions we express.
And amid our modern monitoring, words such as “hate” have been wholly redefined. What is supposed to indicate an extreme emotion now means the side of an issue opposed by a regulating body’s singular intolerant point of view.
Somehow, we’ve taken a space larger than we once could have imagined — the worldwide web — and turned it into a space smaller than existed before we ever went online. Throughout America’s history, people sat in rooms and disagreed. Now we forego those personal encounters so we can stare into a screen and be prohibited from dissent.
Our idea of what’s allowable has so transformed that when Elon Musk proposed buying Twitter, TV’s talking heads decried a “Wild West” — where the chaos of free expression might nightmarishly reign:
Jen Psaki Decries the ‘Harm’ and ‘Misinformation’ of Free Twitter
Former Clinton Official Calls Elon’s Free-Speech Vision the ‘Dream of Every Dictator’
Of course, it isn’t just happening online or on television:
Academics Fear the ‘Hate’ of Free Speech as a Liberated Twitter Looms
Host of School’s Free Speech Event Issues Language Guide Prohibiting ‘Man,’ ‘Woman,’ and ‘Mother’
Once Elon has taken Twitter’s reigns, will a comment such as Jordan’s be permitted?
Mikhaila posited to the billionaire, “Definitely not a free speech platform at the moment.”
Jordan’s managed multiple social media controversies as of late. In May, he asserted that plus-size Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Yumi Nu was “not beautiful”:
Sorry. Not beautiful. And no amount of authoritarian tolerance is going to change that. https://t.co/rOASeeQvee
— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) May 16, 2022
Earlier this month, he offered something similar about the NFL’s first transgender cheerleader:
Not beautiful either. Happy now Twitter trolls?
— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) June 6, 2022
Concerning beauty, the professor did give a potential “thumbs up” to Instagram model Paige Spiranac.
Ok. She might be beautiful 🙂 https://t.co/bz84d0uNti
— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) June 16, 2022
RedState Deputy Managing Editor Brandon Morse had thoughts:
Jordan Peterson can’t release a tweet without causing the left to fly into some sort of rage, but that’s what happens when you don’t toe the politically correct line set by the outrage mob. Peterson seems to be having fun saying and doing the things that make the left furious, but when you have as much hate coming at you as he does, you might as well do what you can to make it fun.
“Spiranac is beautiful and thousands of years of this being confirmed by our race isn’t going to suddenly stop because the leftist mob said it should,” Brandon wrote.
What will thousands of years of constant speech suppression stop? How about a hundred years? Or twenty-five? We’re quickly on our way to finding out.
-ALEX
See more content from me:
‘Friends’ Creator Surrenders One Percent of Her Reported Wealth to Atone for the Show’s Whiteness
Light on Our Path: America’s Last Living WWII Medal of Honor Recipient Leaves a Shining Example
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Find all my RedState work here.
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