An attempt to "cancel" a popular psychologist

Jordan Peterson is a world-renowned Canadian scholar of clinical psychology. Not only has he taught at Harvard and the University of Toronto, but he has a tremendous commercial success after having published several books.

Over the past five or seven years, while discussions in the United States, Canada, and Western Europe have been raging about gender identity, women's role in society, and men's role as "historical oppressors," Peterson has become one of the most notable figures debunking such ideas about the world order.

But it's not about his views: his interviews or public appearances, can easily be found on the Internet. It's a case when a group of people is trying to cancel a major expert, whose position has long been known, and who was also "cancelled" by a huge company like Twitter. It happened in the summer of 2022, but the wave of attacks on him hasn't stopped.

The last time such thing happened to perhaps the most influential man in the world of the last several years was when U.S. ex-president Donald Trump was "cancelled" by Twitter. He ended up creating his own social network, Truth Social.

Jordan Peterson is now scheduled to speak in Kelowna, British Columbia, promoting his book "Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life." However, a city council servant has initiated a petition to cancel his visit.

“Violence against women and 2SLGTBQIA+ folks starts with words so giving this man a platform to speak is directly impacting safety of marginalized communities,” the petition says while asking the City of Kelowna’s mayor, Tom Dyas, and all council members to cancel the upcoming stop.

“I’ve been cancelled by better people than this sorry lot. Virtue-signaling censorious narcissists,” tweeted Jordan Peterson in response.

This is not the first time that people of radically opposing views have clashed violently. This polarization is in many ways a sign of the crisis of the last 5-7 years in North America, a crisis that began in the United States and later spread to Canada and Northern Europe: scandals, prosecutions, and public insults have all become a commonplace in discussions of gender equality, and free choice.

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This is not the first time that some people try to cancel a Canadian psychologist publicly.

An open letter signed by 36 groups, including the Council of Canadians, Horizon Ottawa and the Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women, called on the Ottawa city council to back the cause. Councillor Ariel Troster supported cancelling the event and addressed the situation in an open letter.

Peterson’s event “undermines the work that the city and community organizations are doing to create stronger and more equitable communities,” she said.

Peterson ended up speaking to the public at the scheduled time. The protesters did not show up at the meeting.

Jordan Peterson is one of the cases of a man who holds an "unpopular" opinion. "Unpopular" because the trend is not set by him, but by his opponents. Indeed, situations arise in Canada, the U.S., and Western Europe when ideals related to gender identity penetrate everyday life of local communities.

Unfortunately, statistics confirm this. The most popular U.S. programs (Jordan Peterson spends much of his time in the U.S.) now have more TV programs and discussions that are related to women's role in the world, confrontation between women and men, and gender issues.

How it all started

An attempt to "cancel" someone began to spread after a reputable newspaper, "The New York Times", published an article in 2017 on Harvey Weinstein's harassment. Back then, in 2017, no one could have imagined that a newspaper article would have causes radical changes not only in the film industry, but everywhere as well.

On the one hand, it shows what power the media has when speaking about really important, complex, relevant topics. The power of the word published can change the direction of public life.

In addition, society turned out to be ready to call to account those who had been in the shadows for decades. Journalists, actors, tycoons, entrepreneurs, athletes – dozens of people found themselves caught up in a whirlwind of scandals that "cancelled" their former merits for their professional activities, because their moral authority had been undermined.

However, it is absolutely necessary to say that there were people who took advantage of this process and they cancelled" someone they don't like, they envy, they hate. The most glaring example is the totally beloved by the public and a exquisitely polite Johnny Depp. In 2017, after allegations against him, his career was ruined: producers cut him out of the films like "Fantastic Beasts" franchise, brands would rescind contracts, and fans began to turn away for the mere public accusation of him doing something unscrupulous.

Last year the trial ended proving his innocence and dismissed all the charges against him, but no one will give him back those five years of taken away from him since 2017.

Issues of gender equality and identity, freedom of choice, and the freedom to speak publicly and argue one's views are heated in Canadian society today, it is true. But there is always room for discussion, even if it is not easy. The opportunity to talk is always there. Democracy allows us to seek and find answers to the challenges we face, helps finding common ground, helps recognizing and respecting the rights of those who may feel insulted or lonely.

And the greatest achievement of Canadian society is that, despite the challenges that arise, the democracy helps finding a way out.