During a tense town hall, staff cried and expressed dismay with the publishing giant's decision to publish 'Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life.'
Several Penguin Random House Canada employees confronted management about the company’s decision to publish a new book by controversial Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson at an emotional town hall Monday, and dozens more have filed anonymous complaints, according to four workers who spoke to VICE World News.
“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,” a junior employee who is a member of the LGBTQ community and who attended the town hall told VICE World News.
Another employee said “people were crying in the meeting about how Jordan Peterson has affected their lives.” They said one co-worker discussed how Peterson had radicalized their father and another talked about how publishing the book will negatively affect their non-binary friend.
“The company since June has been doing all these anti-racist and allyship things and them publishing Peterson’s book completely goes against this. It just makes all of their previous efforts seem completely performative,” the employee added.
A third employee told VICE World News the company’s diversity and inclusion committee received at least 70 anonymous messages about Peterson’s book, and only a couple are in favour of the decision to publish it.
Penguin Random House Staff Confront Publisher About New Jordan Peterson Book
This seems to be more about who the author is rather than the content of the book.
The publishers, however, seem committed to publishing the book.
Collins opened the meeting by talking about how Peterson has “helped millions of people who are on the fringes of society who would otherwise be radicalized by alt-right groups,” according to one of the four employees who spoke to VICE World News.
“She was trying to kind of spin it as a positive to be publishing this book,” the employee said.
“(But) he’s the one who’s responsible for radicalizing and causing this surge of alt-right groups, especially on university campuses.”
The employee said Collins noted her background in journalism and that it’s important to be publishing “a variety of voices.”
The last two minutes of this video, starting from 10:47 explains why censoring those we disagree with is bad.
"If you think someone has a bad, offensive or even violent idea, let them express it. Because without it being public, it has no opposition. The way we rid the world of bad ideas is not by silencing them. It's by discussing them."
Censoring opinions or ideas you disagree with just takes these opinions and ideas underground, where they can fester, unchallenged. It also creates the Streisand Effect.
Dr Peterson has asked for people not to harass the employees.
https://twitter.com/jordanbpeterson/status/1332402436246556672
Several Penguin Random House Canada employees confronted management about the company’s decision to publish a new book by controversial Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson at an emotional town hall Monday, and dozens more have filed anonymous complaints, according to four workers who spoke to VICE World News.
“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,” a junior employee who is a member of the LGBTQ community and who attended the town hall told VICE World News.
Another employee said “people were crying in the meeting about how Jordan Peterson has affected their lives.” They said one co-worker discussed how Peterson had radicalized their father and another talked about how publishing the book will negatively affect their non-binary friend.
“The company since June has been doing all these anti-racist and allyship things and them publishing Peterson’s book completely goes against this. It just makes all of their previous efforts seem completely performative,” the employee added.
A third employee told VICE World News the company’s diversity and inclusion committee received at least 70 anonymous messages about Peterson’s book, and only a couple are in favour of the decision to publish it.
Penguin Random House Staff Confront Publisher About New Jordan Peterson Book
This seems to be more about who the author is rather than the content of the book.
The publishers, however, seem committed to publishing the book.
Collins opened the meeting by talking about how Peterson has “helped millions of people who are on the fringes of society who would otherwise be radicalized by alt-right groups,” according to one of the four employees who spoke to VICE World News.
“She was trying to kind of spin it as a positive to be publishing this book,” the employee said.
“(But) he’s the one who’s responsible for radicalizing and causing this surge of alt-right groups, especially on university campuses.”
The employee said Collins noted her background in journalism and that it’s important to be publishing “a variety of voices.”
The last two minutes of this video, starting from 10:47 explains why censoring those we disagree with is bad.
"If you think someone has a bad, offensive or even violent idea, let them express it. Because without it being public, it has no opposition. The way we rid the world of bad ideas is not by silencing them. It's by discussing them."
Censoring opinions or ideas you disagree with just takes these opinions and ideas underground, where they can fester, unchallenged. It also creates the Streisand Effect.
Dr Peterson has asked for people not to harass the employees.
https://twitter.com/jordanbpeterson/status/1332402436246556672
