This week the Orpheum Theatre in Boston is hosting Jordan Peterson, a transphobic and misogynist academic popular among the Alt-Right. Join us in telling the Orpheum Theatre: No platform for hate!

Who is Jordan Peterson?

Jordan Peterson, a psychology professor at the University of Toronto, rose to fame in 2016 due to his objections to human rights protections for transgender people and his refusal to call trans students and colleagues by the correct pronouns. He went on to become an internet celebrity among the Alt-Right and involuntary celibates, or "incels" (a male supremacist movement who blame their sexual frustration on women and feminism), appealing particularly to young, white, straight men who feel white male privilege is under attack. Peterson has expressed violently misogynist and anti-feminist views; perhaps most notoriously claiming, after a self-identified incel carried out a car attack that killed 10 people in Toronto in 2018, that the cure for male supremacist violence is "enforced monogamy." He recently resigned his post at U of T, complaining about the university's focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (in an article outlining why he resigned, among other things he questioned the qualifications of BIPOC academics and criticized the banning of conversion therapy in Canada).

Peterson's popular teachings target disaffected white men, making them feel more powerful by giving them an enemy to blame for their problems (basically, anyone who supports the rights and liberation of women, LGBTQ+ folks, and BIPOC). While Peterson ostensibly denies his support for the Alt-Right, he repeats their talking points and dogwhistles, and provides an entry point into the organized Right for people who are susceptible to their messaging.