LGBT activists have a new public enemy number 1: Jordan B. Peterson. Peterson is a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto (formerly at Harvard). Peterson insists on choosing his own words (how tyrannical!) and objects to legislation forcing people to refer to LGBT individuals by their chosen pronouns. This is damnable heresy, and activists must denounce him as a "bigot.""Careless, ideologically-addled legislators are forcing us to use words we did not freely choose," Peterson declared in an op-ed for The Hill. The Canadian professor admitted that there are reasonable restrictions on free speech -- like prohibiting yelling "fire!" in a crowded room. "There is, however, a crucial difference between laws that stop people from saying arguably dangerous words and laws that mandate the use of politically-approved words and phrases."
In other words, Peterson objects to any law forcing people to speak in certain ways. This is a more dangerous limit on freedom than prohibiting a few dangerous forms of speech.
Naturally, social justice warriors (SWJs) can't stand for this. Mobs have gathered to protest his arguments for free speech. At a University of Toronto protest earlier this month, SJWs chanted, "Shame! Shame!" as Peterson attempted to speak. A pair of women (or, should I say womyn?) tampered with a speaker to drown out his words. He was swarmed a day later by queer (their word) and transgender people, who attacked him for refusing to refer to a person as "they/them" as "a matter of respect."
OK, so there's way too many for a normal person to remember. How about a catch-all pronoun, such as 'dipshit'?
Peterson is protesting the Canadian Bill C-16, which on first reading seems reasonable enough. It would amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code to add "gender identity or expression" to the list of protected classes. So what's the problem? "Discrimination" on the basis of "gender identity or expression" includes "misgendering" people -- i.e. referring to them with the "wrong" gender pronoun.
If you want to see what this looks like, the Big Apple provides an example. In May, the New York City Commission on Human Rights declared that refusing to refer to someone by their preferred gender pronoun (from "him and her" to "ze, xe, hir," and many others) is "harassment" and punishable by "civil penalties up to $125,000 for violations, and up to $250,000 for violations that are the result of willful, wanton, or malicious conduct."
In that case, I want to be referred to as 'Your Majesty'.
HeatStreet published a hilarious video showing just how misunderstood many of the officially protected gender identity terms are (and by extension, how difficult it would be to keep track of everyone's different pronouns). Or, at least, it's hilarious unless you live in the Big Apple and can be fined up to $250,000 for not using one of these words to refer to a particular individual. This is not just arbitrary, it can be quite oppressive.