During an interview with Channel 4, professor and clinical psychologist Jordan B. Peterson left reporter Cathy Newman speechless when she asked him why freedom of speech should trump someone’s “right” to not be offended.
“Why should your right to freedom of speech trump a trans person’s right not to be offended?” asked the Channel 4 reporter.
“Because in order to be able to think, you have to risk being offensive. I mean, look at the conversation we’re having right now,” Peterson answered. “You’re certainly willing to risk offending me in the pursuit of truth. Why should you have the right to do that? It’s been rather uncomfortable.”
“Well, I’m very glad I’ve put you on the spot,” Newman replied, deflecting from his point.
“Well you get my point,” said Peterson. “You’re doing what you should do, which is digging a bit to see what the hell is going on. And that is what you should do. But you’re exercising your freedom of speech to certainly risk offending me, and that’s fine. More power to you, as far as I’m concerned.”
Newman was rendered speechless.
“So you haven’t sat there and — I’m just trying to work that out,” she said clumsily, giving off a sigh.
“Ha, got ya,” the professor playfully quipped.
“You did. You did,” Newman admitted.
The discussion concerning freedom of speech was sparked due to Peterson’s famous refusal to capitulate to the Left’s demands over language. He said he was “not going to cede the linguistic territory to radical leftists, regardless to whether of not it was put into law,” he explained during the interview. As you can imagine, his refusal to bend became centered on transgender pronouns and Peterson was labeled “transphobic.”
The professor reiterated that he’s no such thing and said he’s never called a student by an “incorrect” pronoun, nor would he. “I never mistreated a student in my class,” he said.
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