Jordan Peterson, the Canadian professor and YouTube sensation known for his opposition to politically correctness, has been censored by a New Zealand bookstore.
In the wake of the New Zealand mosque shooting, the major New Zealand bookstore Whitcoulls removed his bestselling book “12 Rules for Life: An Antidote For Chaos.” the Daily Caller reported.
The bookstore, which continues offering Hitler’s manifesto “Mein Kampf,” said in a customer service email it made the move in light of “some extremely disturbing material being circulated prior, during and after the Christchurch attack.”
The Daily Caller said it’s likely a reference to a photograph in which Peterson embraced a fan wearing an “I’m A Proud Islamaphobe” T-shirt.
Peterson is a clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of Toronto. His book makes only one reference to Muslims, which is not derogatory.
He first attracted attention in Canada and the United States in 2016 after speaking out against a Canadian anti-discrimination bill he said would have compelled him to use his students and colleagues’ preferred pronouns in violation of his right to free speech.
A member of the New Zealand Parliament, ACT Party leader David Seymour, said you “don’t fight neo-Nazism by suppressing reading and books.”
“A self-help book is an incredibly strange thing to suppress. I think Whitcoulls have made the wrong decision, but I respect they’re a private company, it’s their right,” he said.
‘Propaganda-addled souls’
On Wednesday, after protest from faculty and students, Cambridge University announced it is revoking a visiting fellowship for Peterson, the Washington Examiner reported.
Peterson was to participate in public lectures on the Bible as part of an academic fellowship with Cambridge’s Faculty of Divinity.
The Cambridge University Student Union said it was “relieved to hear” of the decision.
“It is a political act to associate the University with an academic’s work through offers which legitimize figures such as Peterson,” the union said. “His work and views are not representative of the student body and as such we do not see his visit as a valuable contribution to the University, but one that works in opposition to the principles of the University.”
Peterson said in a statement on his website that the faculty “made a serious error of judgment.”
“I think they handled publicizing the rescindment in a manner that could hardly have been more narcissistic, self-congratulatory and devious,” he said.
“I believe that the parties in question don’t give a damn about the perilous decline of Christianity, and I presume in any case that they regard that faith, in their propaganda-addled souls, as the ultimate manifestation of the oppressive Western patriarchy, despite their hypothetical allegiance to their own discipline,” Peterson said.
