Jordan Peterson on free speech and free thought

The Daily Telegraph reports:

Cancel culture is personal for Jordan Peterson. His voice rises in emotion as he recalls the indignity of finding out on Twitter about his Cambridge lecture series, subsequently reinstated, being cancelled. “Sorry, it’s a bit of a sore spot,” he says, taking a drink of water.

But it’s also a great deal more than that to him: “This isn’t a battle between two viewpoints, it’s nothing that trivial.”

Peterson, invoking his professional experience in clinical psychology, believes that “if you can’t say what you think, soon you won’t be able to think, because mostly we think in words”.

Herein lies the real danger of cancel culture, particularly at universities, whose primary function is arguably to nurture thoughts and help students learn to think for themselves: “The issue is there is no distinction between free speech and free thought. And there’s no thought without free thought. Thought by its nature is either free or it doesn’t exist.

“This isn’t a battle for some right. This is a battle for the heart of universities. And Cambridge has been a beacon and so has Oxford. You might even say the beacon for the world in such matters.”

This is of course the intent of many of those behind cancel culture. They want to eliminate thoughts they disapprove off. They are modern day puritans.