JORDAN PETERSON VERSUS THE CRYBULLY STALINISTS:
The company should not indulge this bullsh*t for one second. It should tell these people that either they grow up and do their jobs, or they go find another line of work. Publishers publish books. Period. The end. I guarantee you that there are thousands of young men and women who would love to break into publishing, who don’t have thin skins and an enormous sense of entitlement.
Neither publishing, nor journalism, nor universities can do what they are supposed to do if they cater to these wretched whiners. I am sick to death of the veto power they exercise over freedom of thought and expression. What is it going to take for the adults who run these institutions to assert authority, and protect writers from these piss-ant Robespierres?
If you are crying in a meeting at the office because of how you think Jordan Peterson affected your life, then you are not mature enough to work in publishing, and you ought to be sent away. Honest to God, I would be ashamed of myself if that’s how I behaved. What the hell is wrong with these people?! Who failed them?
Excuse me for getting so emotional about this, but I see my own future as a writer at stake here. If they can do this to Jordan Peterson, and get away with it, who can’t they do it to?
The book in question is the sequel to Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life, which was #1 most read on Amazon for months after its publication in January of 2018. (The last post I found at Instapundit showing it as number one was in August of 2018, and it was at number three in November of that year.) It’s currently at number 12 on Amazon, nearly two years after its publication date. Roger Ebert once called movie sequels “a filmed deal,” in that sequels are greenlit because Hollywood studios know they’re likely to be profitable on some level, given the original’s built-in core audience. Unlike the crybullies who convinced Hachette Book Group to drop Woody Allen’s autobiography in March, Penguin Random House likely know that they have a surefire hit on their hands given Peterson’s controversy and superstardom. As Glenn wrote last night, the wise move is to fire all the crybullies as a lesson to others. Otherwise, if they go the Hachette route, another publisher is going to make a fair amount of change off of Peterson’s latest book.