Jordan Peterson Fires Back After Twitter Ban over ‘Elliot Page’ Tweet: ‘I’d Rather Die’ than Delete My Tweet

Elliot Page attends the 2022 Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted by Radhika Jones at Wallis Ann
Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

Canadian psychologist and bestselling author Dr. Jordan Peterson insisted he would not capitulate to “woke authoritarian moralists” and would “rather die” than delete a tweet of his criticizing “pride” while using Ellen Page’s original name, and calling the surgeon who operated on Page a “criminal,” in a tweet that brought about a suspension of his Twitter account last week.

In a viral video posted to YouTube on Friday, Peterson stood his ground after being censored last month for criticizing transgender surgery and referring to transgender actress Ellen Page, who now goes by “Elliot” and identifies as a male, by her original name.

Following his “irritated tweet” which was posted in response to “one of the latest happenings on the increasingly heated culture war front,” Peterson said in reference to “Ellen Elliot Page” that he was “employing this awkward and impossible naming style because it is now apparently mandatory,” as well as in an attempt to “make a point.” 

In the nearly 15-minute clip, which garnered almost 3 million views in less than a week, Peterson deemed his Twitter suspension a “ban” because the social media giant threatened not to lift it unless he agrees to delete the “hateful tweet.”

“I would rather die than do that,” he declared. “And hopefully it will not come to that.”

“Although who the hell knows in these increasingly strange days?” he added.

Warning the “fuss” his tweet caused “is just beginning,” Peterson addressed each part of the short “controversial” tweet that read: 

“Remember when pride was a sin? And Ellen Page just had her breasts removed by a criminal physician.”  

The original response from Twitter read:

Violating our rules against hateful conduct. You may not promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability or serious disease. By clicking Delete, you acknowledge that your Tweet violated the Twitter rules.

Firstly, Peterson noted, “I did not promote violence against or threaten anyone with my missive; so that leaves the arguably lesser sin of ‘harass.’” 

He also highlighted how Twitter does not specify the actual offense committed, leaving one to speculate, which Peterson called “a big problem in and of itself” as well as “indicative of the utter carelessness of the Twitter organization with regard to the propriety of its own censorial actions.”

“I should at least know exactly what I did wrong if I’m required to acknowledge that my tweet violated the Twitter rules,” he said.

“What rules, you sons of bitches? Exactly! Precisely!” he added. “Because such things matter when the accusations start flying.”

While considering what he wrote that may have constituted “harassment,” Peterson said many things could have hypothetically met that criteria.

“Remember when pride was a sin?”

“Under the old rules applicable even a decade ago, pride was a sin and had been recognized as perhaps the cardinal sin for thousands of years previously,” he said, though adding it “still might be regarded as acceptable to the woke authoritarian moralists who now insist, for example, that we celebrate ‘Pride’ month — not hour or day or week, but month.”

“[Pride] has been classically regarded as a sin. I don’t see that sexual orientation or sexual desire of any sort is something to celebrate or to take pride in,” he added. “And so what I said was merely a fact.”

Admitting he may have “hurt someone’s feelings,” Peterson said he was unconcerned and “would do it again.” 

“I also consider it my duty to warn those who are about to fall into a pit that the path they are on leads suddenly downhill,” he said.

“And Ellen Page…”

The next phrase Peterson analyzed was his reference to Page by the name “Ellen” instead of the more updated “Elliot.”

“In all likelihood it was this seemingly innocuous phrase including the name of a well-known actress — there, I’m in trouble again — that likely resulted in my ban,” he said. 

“I committed the fatal crime of what has come to be known in the appalling censorial terminology of the insane activists as ‘deadnaming,’ which is the act of referring to someone who has ‘transitioned’ — another hated piece of jargon and slogan — by the name and by the inference – by the gender, really the sex, that everyone knew them by previously, and in the case of Ellen/Elliot that millions of people recognized and new,” he added.

He also deemed the ‘dead name’ category existent solely in the “censorial and addled minds of a tiny fraction of insanely narcissistic and increasingly dangerous trans activists.”

However, Peterson pointed out, calling Page “Elliot” rather than “Ellen” would have “made it impossible for me to say what I wanted to and needed to say in the remaining phrases.” 

 “…just had her breasts removed…”

Regarding the next phrase, “just had her breasts removed,” Peterson claimed it “suffers from a very similar problem.” 

“I employed the forbidden pronoun ‘her’ when Elliot/Ellen is now to be regarded as a ‘he’ — or else,” he said.

However, Peterson noted the “conundrum” such terminology produces.

“Was Elliot/Ellen a ‘she’ or a ‘he’ or Ellen or Elliot when she or he or they — that’s Elliot or Ellen by the way — had his or her or their breasts removed?” he asked. “If he or she was a ‘he’ then why was it necessary to have the mastectomy? And how could those I am writing to make sense of what I was saying if it was ‘his’ breasts that were removed? Were those male breasts or female breasts that were removed?”

“If they were male breasts, then why were they removed?! If they were female breasts and had therefore become objectionable to the degree that surgery — generally reserved for [when] cancer treatment was required [and] morally obligatory — then wasn’t Elliot still Ellen and ‘he’ still ‘she’?” he asked.

Peterson maintained that writing such a sentence “in any sensible manner,” while simultaneously making his point understandable and not violating Twitter rules against “hateful conduct,” would be impossible.

If he had written, “Elliot Page just had his breasts removed,” then, Peterson asked, “was he Elliot then? When exactly?” 

“He was definitely Ellen at some point in the past — or so indicate all his/her/them/their film credits,” he said. “Will all those have to be reshot since they employed the hated ‘dead name?’” 

Peterson argued that it would be impossible to expect him to communicate the story while discerning when precisely it was incumbent on him to switch his terminology to avoid engaging in what Twitter deemed “hateful conduct.” 

“And how can I describe the fact that someone who was once a woman — and really still is — had her breasts cut off because she/he/they/their/them had fallen prey to a viciously harmful fad without using the appropriate sex-linked pronoun and the real name of the real person to whom this was really done with his/her/their voluntary but unfortunate acquiescence?” he asked.

“And so it was impossible to communicate what had happened to my audience, without apparently running afoul of the impossible and absurd rules that now hypothetically govern morality itself in the days of the degenerated postmodern and Marxist ethos that we must still, no matter how impossible it is, abide by — or else,” he added. 

Though Page is an adult, Peterson argued, the Juno star is also “a ritual model for emulation,” being a celebrity “with all the privileges” and “responsibilities” that go along with that role: 

By acquiescing to this surgery and by publicizing it by insisting upon the sanctity and the moral virtue of his/her/their new, expensive, dangerous and medically enhanced identity; and by participating in the whole identity charade, Ellen/Elliot has undoubtedly with his/her/their so-called ‘courage’ — and remember the White House itself has tweeted out every indication of believing in the courage of those who transition — enticed many a poor confused adolescent girl most likely to blame her emergent pubescent, self-consciousness, confusion and discomfort on being born in the wrong body and believing that the courageous self-affirming and morally admirable root is hormonal treatment, sterilization, subjugation to a lifetime of expensive medical complication, (how delightfully profitable is that?) and misery. 

“And I believe firmly that Ellen/Elliot or whatever the hell her name or his name is bears moral culpability for that,” he added. 

“…by a criminal physician” 

Regarding the final phrase, “by a criminal physician,” Peterson offered a tongue-in-cheek admission to having “regrets” over it. 

“It is clearly the case that the surgical operation performed by the butchers who butchered Elliot/Ellen was legal. So was it criminal or not?” he asked. “Were the operations undertaken by the fascist physicians who carried out the Nazi medical experiments legal? Yes, under the laws of the time. But were they criminal?” 

“I’ll leave that question up to you to answer,” he said.

Furthermore, Peterson called attention to the “damage done by hypothetically leaving those confused about their identity to dwell in their confusion,” noting that “sins of omission are less egregious than sins of commission.” 

“Leaving someone with gender dysphoria… is less of a risk ethically, personally, socially and philosophically, than the extremely active intervention that constitutes so-called ‘gender confirming’ — another hated phrase — surgery,” he argued.

He also pointed out that the “trans surgery enterprise” — an industry “associated with this vicious and unconscionable fad” — is now “a $300 million per annum growth industry [with a] rate of projected expansion [of] 15% per year [and a] projected increase by 2027 to $750 million per year.” 

“Isn’t that a concern, intersectionalists?!” he asked. “Not when push comes to shove; or ideology to scalpel.”

Calling such conduct a “true moral hazard,” Peterson reiterated that he would not remove his tweet or acknowledge that it violated Twitter rules. 

“Up yours, woke moralists,” he taunted. “We’ll see who cancels who.”

Calling Twitter a “rat hole” and a “horrible toxic platform,” Peterson concluded by deeming his being banned under the present conditions “a badge of honor.”

The popular psychologist and social commentator’s message comes as pro-LGBTQ sentiment and transgender propaganda continues to spread.

On Thursday, transgender track cycling world champion Veronica Ivy said trans women are “real” women and should be competing against other women.

Ivy also called for the end of “policing who counts as a real woman” while accusing “white women’s conceptions of femininity” of singling out intersex “women of color” and warned that transgender people are coming to push their agenda on every aspect of society.

Last week, President Joe Biden’s Assistant Secretary of Health Rachel Levine, who is transgender, called “gender-affirming care” for youth, a far-left euphemism for child mutilation, a “lifesaving” and a medical necessity.

“Gender affirming care is lifesaving, medically necessary, age-appropriate, and a critical tool for health care providers,” Levine said.

In May, Peterson backed away from Twitter after facing backlash for declaring that plus-size Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Yumi Nu is “not beautiful.”

In January, he revealed he had resigned from his tenured position at the University of Toronto, citing the “appalling ideology of diversity, inclusion and equity” that is “demolishing education and business.”

Follow Joshua Klein on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.

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