Employees at Penguin Random House Canada are pitching a hissy fit because the publisher green-lighted a book by Jordan Peterson, the Canadian psychologist who infuriates the Left because he opposes its ridiculous speech codes.
Peterson’s Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life, the leftist Vice reported, provoked an “emotional town hall” among “LGBT” employees. And dozens of other employees complained in writing that Penguin would publish the book.
The book is scheduled to appear in March. Whether it does is open to questions. Major corporations routinely surrender to the demands of the far Left, in particular its homosexual auxiliary.
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“Icon Of Hate Speech”
“Executives defended the decision to publish Peterson,” four company employees told Vice, “while employees cited their concerns about platforming someone who is popular in far-right circles.”
In fact, Peterson is popular in many “circles,” including the “circle” that thinks inventing “gender-neutral” pronouns for “transgenders” is a little bit crazy.
Anyway, the employees turned pink, then lavender, then purple with rage.
“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,” an “LGBTQ” employee told Vice.
“People were crying in the meeting about how Jordan Peterson has affected their lives,” another angry employee said. “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.”
And “a third employee [said] 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 Canada provided the usual boilerplate, Vice reported:
We announced yesterday that we will publish Jordan Peterson’s new book Beyond Order this coming March. Immediately following the announcement, we held a forum and provided a space for our employees to express their views and offer feedback. Our employees have started an anonymous feedback channel, which we fully support. We are open to hearing our employees’ feedback and answering all of their questions. We remain committed to publishing a range of voices and viewpoints.
Decision “Hidden,” Strike Would Have Been Threatened
The employee who said Peterson is an “icon of hate speech” fumed that Penguin’s powers did not consult the “LGBT community” before it OK’d the book.
“I feel it was deliberately hidden and dropped on us once it was too late to change course,” it said. The decision did not appear in an internal database that includes forthcoming titles, the employee whined:
The employee said workers would have otherwise considered a walkout, similar to what Hachette employees did when the publisher announced it would be publishing Woody Allen’s memoir; Hachette later dropped the book.
Top decision-makers probably didn’t consult the janitors either, but anyway, neither were the company’s offended employees happy with the meeting after the decision was announced. Anne Collins, publisher of Knopf Random Canada Publishing Group, Peterson’s imprint, told them that she helped millions on the “fringes” avoid the “alt-right,” Vice reported.
“She was trying to kind of spin it as a positive to be publishing this book,” an 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 Scott Sellers, director of marketing strategy, spoke about how the company has to work with writers whose views “we don’t necessarily support,” but that Sellers also defended Peterson by stating that he supports same-sex marriage. …
“They’re not going to acknowledge the reason they’re doing it is for money. I feel that would be the more honest route to go rather than making up excuses for Jordan Peterson,” they said.
The employee said the company’s diversity and inclusion committee aired concerns about how this will affect other authors.
“We publish a lot of people in the LGBTQ+ community and what is the company going to do about making sure these authors are still feeling supported by a company that is supporting somebody who denies their existence,” the employee said.
Maybe, but more likely company execs made excuses for making money, the company’s goal.
Vice did not, apparently, ask whether Peterson’s books are more profitable than those it publishes by and for the “LGBTQ+ community.”
Hat tip: Legal Insurrection
