Jordan Peterson Quits Twitter, Says Platform’s Design ‘Dangerously Insane’ After Torrent of Woke Vitriol

Jordan Peterson speaking with attendees at the 2018 Student Action Summit hosted by Turnin
Gage Skidmore / Flickr

Dr. Jordan Peterson has quit Twitter after facing backlash for declaring that plus-size Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Yumi Nu is “not beautiful.”

“Sorry. Not beautiful. And no amount of authoritarian tolerance is going to change that,” Peterson tweeted Monday afternoon in response to a New York Post tweet about Nu, who is featured this year on a Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition cover.

Peterson was subsequently attacked for his comment, with one Twitter user writing, “‘authoritarian’? Chunky women on magazine covers? You sound like a parody of you.” The account owner, known as “Vaush,” is a socialist YouTuber frequently mocked for his hot takes on lowering the age of consent and child pornography.

Peterson responded, stating, “It’s a conscious progressive attempt to manipulate & retool the notion of beauty, reliant on the idiot philosophy that such preferences are learned & properly changed by those who know better,” and he included links to two academic papers on attractiveness.

“The endless flood of vicious insult[s] is really not something that can be experienced anywhere else,” Peterson tweeted on Monday night. “I like to follow the people I know but I think the incentive structure of the platform makes it intrinsically and dangerously insane.”

Minutes later, the author and University of Toronto professor emeritus announced in a followup tweet that he would be quitting Twitter.

“So I told my staff to change my password, to keep me from temptation and am departing once again,” Peterson said. “If I have something to say I’ll write an article or make a video.”

“If the issue is not important enough to justify that then perhaps it would be best to just let it go,” he added.

Nu has joined the ranks of plus-size models Ashley Graham and Hunter McGrady, making it onto the cover of the 2022 Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition, which will feature the model on its front cover.

This year’s SI swimsuit issue also includes several WNBA players, a model with a visible C-section scar, and a septuagenarian model.

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.

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