“Free Speech Warrior” Threatens To Sue Feminist Critic

Jordan Peterson, a Canadian academic and best-selling author, rocketed to fame when he confronted transgender students over demands that he use their preferred pronouns when he addressed them. He told the BBC that based on his decades long study of authoritarianism, it begins when people attempt to take over “ ideological and linguistic territory.” Nevertheless, he threatened to sue author and Cornell University assistant professor Kate Manne for defamation, after she criticized his book, 12 Rules For Life, and called his work misogynistic in an interview. Peterson’s lawyer demanded that Manne, Cornell University and the forum that interviewed her “immediately retract all of Professor Manne’s defamatory statements, have them immediately removed from the internet, and issue an apology in the same forum to Mr. Peterson. Otherwise, our client will take all steps necessary to protect his professional reputation, including but not limited to initiating legal proceedings against all of you for damages.” Among the statements cited was the contention that a book Peterson wrote included skepticism about objective facts that arise “when it’s conveniently anti-feminist.”