Jordan Peterson quits Twitter after dissing plus-size Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model Yumi Nu
Jordan Peterson #JordanPeterson
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“If I have something to say I’ll write an article or make a video.”
Publishing date:
May 17, 2022 • 24 minutes ago • 2 minute read • Join the conversation 
Jordan Peterson is an author, YouTube personality and former U of T psychology professor. Photo by Craig Robertson /Toronto Sun Article content
Controversial author Jordan Peterson is under fire for describing plus-size Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover model Yumi Nu as “not beautiful.”
Peterson quote tweeted a New York Post tweet Monday on Nu.
He wrote: “Sorry. Not beautiful. And no amount of authoritarian tolerance is going to change that.”
But the backlash was faster than a cancel culture convention.
And now the academic has quit Twitter and his three million followers.
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He tweeted Monday night: “The endless flood of vicious insult is really not something that can be experienced anywhere else. I like to follow the people I know but I think the incentive structure of the platform makes it intrinsically and dangerously insane.”
And he said he wants his staff to torpedo temptations to reboot on the Twitterverse.
“I told my staff to change my password, to keep me from temptation and am departing once again,” Peterson wrote. “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.”
One user challenged the best-selling former University of Toronto professor: “’Authoritarian’? Chunky women on magazine covers? You sound like a parody of you.”
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Peterson fired back: “It’s a conscious progressive attempt to manipulate and retool the notion of beauty, reliant on the idiot philosophy that such preferences are learned and properly changed by those who know better. But don’t let the facts stop you.”
For good measure, he added links to two academic papers on attractiveness.
But his critics weren’t finished.
One wrote: “Standards of beauty change over time. Plus you posted two studies that don’t substantiate your point.”
Another tweeter added: “He’s always been a parody of an ‘intellectual’ psychologist, dummies.”
Jordan Peterson is an author, YouTube personality and former U of T psychology professor. Photo by Craig Robertson /Toronto Sun
However, Peterson wasn’t alone in his criticism — but it was mostly over Nu’s size.
One person wrote: “Let’s be honest. She is beautiful. Heavy set .. but still beautiful.”
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Another said: “On the real bros … if she dropped the extra pounds, she’d be a 10. She is beautiful, but I’d prefer being in a little bit better shape, especially being on a cover of a mag in a swimsuit. But no doubt beautiful & decent proportions.”
Peterson — a conservative intellectual — rose to fame as the author of 12 Rules For Life. He has nearly five million YouTube subscribers who have embraced his views on issues of the day.
For her part, Nu has commented on the criticism but told the Post she was stunned about making the cover.
“I could not speak. I had full-body chills. I was shaking, I was crying. They really got me good,” Nu told the famed tabloid of the surprise. “It’s amazing. I’m on cloud nine. This is nothing I could prepare for. It’s unexpected.”
bhunter@postmedia.com
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