Who are the intellectual dark web and should I be scared?
The stage has been set for years...
Ideologically polarized media outlets editing interviews into patronizing and reductive sound bytes in order to appease the very advertisers who restrict their journalistic integrity...
A post-tribal world whose borders have been redrawn across political and ideological orthodoxies.
Echo chambers creating positive feedback loops that render good ideas fanatic and bad ideas unchecked.
Healthy debate handicapped by motivated reasoning and inter-group loyalty signalling.
A time when information, knowledge, and progress is more readily available and attainable than ever, yet we find ourselves buried deeper into our perspective teams living in parallel alternative universes.
And out of this chaotic shouting match has arisen a set of new players, who challenge the existing machine, who are willing to enter the arena of debate and discuss difficult topics that strike fear into the hearts of mainstream advertisers. While they are ideologically diverse there are few common threads that make them a formidable motley crew. Rather than battling for 5 minutes on a cable news network shouting match, they engage in long-form discussions on podcasts, youtube videos, and live events. They all seem to reject identity politics in some form or another, believing that true progress comes from treating every person as an individual instead of their ethnicity, sexual orientation, or eye colour. And they all are willing to diverge from their own tribes, be they political, religious, or academic.
They are the archetypal avengers, answering the call to action made necessary by the proliferation of poor communication in the digital age. The justice league of an increasingly popular form of intellectual sparring. They are... the Intellectual Dark Web.
The Players
Dr. Jordan Peterson - University of Toronto Professor, clinical psychologist, and "most influential intellectual" in the world.
Powers: Master of jungian style psychology, mythology, and religion. Author of the best-selling "12 Rules for Life". His lectures on Bible stories and mythology have been received as if they were rock concerts.
Arch enemy: The "ideologically possessed left" (although he has spent significant work challenging the extreme right he has faced a stricter backlash from the left).
Weakness: A quick temper and a commitment to tell the truth how he sees it regardless of the consequences. He is characterized as a misogynist, trans-phobic and a poster-boy for the patriarchy and Alt-Right.
Sam Harris - Neuroscientist, philosopher, one of the "4 Horsemen of Atheism", podcaster and author.
Powers: Reason, sharp critical thinking, and commitment to intellectual integrity.
Arch Enemy: Toxic ideologies (ie. orthodoxy religions, most notably extremist Islam) and identity politics. Also, leftist media who purportedly misrepresent him and his views.
Weakness: A sensitivity to slander and misrepresentation mixed with an arguably naive notion that he can use his powers of reason to correct the inherent biases and maliciousness in those who misrepresent him. He is accused of being an Islamophobe, racist, and alt-right supporter (despite being noticeably liberal in almost every aspect and metric).
Joe Rogan - UFC commentator, comedian, and world's best podcaster ... yes that Joe Rogan.
Powers: Willingness to have interesting and curiosity provoking conversations with just about anyone. He has the capacity to hang with any intellectual heavyweight while maintaining the humility to ask the questions that us neophytes would need to ask to keep up. His podcast has a more expansive reach than any mainstream news media outlet.
Arch Enemy: Intellectually dishonest people and over-controlling media executives and producers who would sensor him if they had any influence on his product.
Weakness: He is the least willing to be counted among the IDW but has arguably the widest reach through his astronomically successful podcast. Through Joe, the others were able to rapidly grow their perspective audiences. He is often criticized for not screening guests or for giving platforms to extremists (ie. Alex Jones) to which he responds, "I just talk to people."
Ben Shapiro - political commentator and author, podcaster. Practising orthodox Jew. Champion of conservatives.
Powers - Strong convictions and convincing arguments, Ben Shapiro strikes fear into the casual , less-informed liberal. He has a willingness to debate his side while maintaining respect for his adversaries (or at least the adversaries he deems worthy). He is ultra-conservative at a time when it is uncool to be conservative, and that somehow makes him cool. In a Slate article he was deemed, "a conservative liberals can count on."
Arch-enemy: left-leaning main stream media who, he would argue, unfairly skew the message to serve their ideological purposes.
Weakness: Ideologically he finds himself at the furthest extreme within the group, with exception perhaps to Jordan, however his trait openness allows him to hang with the crew even when he disagrees vehemently about key issues on religion, free will, and morality.
Dave Rubin - talk show host, comedian, and political commentator.
Powers - The ability to straddle the political divide through his identity as a gay, married, classical liberal who also rejects the "regressive left" who adamantly rejected him. He moderates debates and discussions and probably cuts up Jordan Peterson's steaks for him.
Arch-enemy: The aforementioned "regressive left" whose orthodoxy matches or even exceeds the orthodoxy and dogma of the rigid right.
Weakness: As a gay-libertarian he runs the risk of nobody listening to him on either side of the political divide. Also, due to the rejection of him by the left he tends to go after the left disproportionately.
The Weinsteins - (not Harvey) brothers Eric and Bret, as well as Heather Heying (married to Bret).
Powers - If the IDW are the Avengers then Eric is Nick Fury. He gave the group its name (albeit ironically) and it was arguably through Bret and Heather's resignation from Evergreen College and the associated scandal that led to there being a need for a group of influential academics and media personalities to band together in order to have the difficult discussions that mainstream media and academia were not allowing to occur, all for the sake of advancing knowledge and reason, while bridging political and ideological gaps in their listeners. Bret and Heather are accomplished evolutionary biologists and Eric is an influential economist, all of whom lean left of center on most issues.
Arch-enemy: Any institution but particularly those of higher learning that restricts free-speech.
Weakness: Eric admits that he will judge a person on their analytical methods even if they arrive at the correct response. Maybe process over product can go too far.
Honorable mentions:
There are a number of other individuals closely tied to the IDW that are worth noting. While there is no such thing as card-carrying membership, you can count on hearing a few of these names while the others converse. The aforementioned crew tends to be seen as the core of the IDW because they are the ones with their own production channels, ie. podcast, youtube, etc.
Look out for progressive Muslims Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Majid Nawaaz. Quillette editor Claire Lehmann is an important figure as her magazine is committed to publishing articles that place empirical integrity over political correctness. Deborah Soh, who has a PhD in neuroscience will also get associated with the group from time to time. Psychology superstars Jonathan Haidt and Steven Pinker will often be brought up by these folks but they peculiarly are not usually lumped in with the IDW.
Be scared if you are a part of the academia that avoids credible scientific findings that are political powder-kegs.
Be scared if you don't like hearing the best arguments for causes that go against your beliefs.
But otherwise, I truly believe we should be encouraging these people who are courageously stepping in front of twitter mobs, ideologically possessed academics, and polarized politics to stand up for what they think is right and true, which is healthy, public, intellectually informed discussions about difficult topics.
The fact that Sam Harris and Ben Shapiro can go out to dinner after ripping each other to shreds on a stage in front of a few thousand people, while millions listen, is refreshing and praiseworthy. If we could all harness our inner Intellectual Dark Web, and have those difficult conversations with people whose arguments might be better than ours.
Perhaps then, after many long discussions, we might discover the intellectual light that shines through the darkness.
Ideologically polarized media outlets editing interviews into patronizing and reductive sound bytes in order to appease the very advertisers who restrict their journalistic integrity...
A post-tribal world whose borders have been redrawn across political and ideological orthodoxies.
Echo chambers creating positive feedback loops that render good ideas fanatic and bad ideas unchecked.
Healthy debate handicapped by motivated reasoning and inter-group loyalty signalling.
A time when information, knowledge, and progress is more readily available and attainable than ever, yet we find ourselves buried deeper into our perspective teams living in parallel alternative universes.
And out of this chaotic shouting match has arisen a set of new players, who challenge the existing machine, who are willing to enter the arena of debate and discuss difficult topics that strike fear into the hearts of mainstream advertisers. While they are ideologically diverse there are few common threads that make them a formidable motley crew. Rather than battling for 5 minutes on a cable news network shouting match, they engage in long-form discussions on podcasts, youtube videos, and live events. They all seem to reject identity politics in some form or another, believing that true progress comes from treating every person as an individual instead of their ethnicity, sexual orientation, or eye colour. And they all are willing to diverge from their own tribes, be they political, religious, or academic.
They are the archetypal avengers, answering the call to action made necessary by the proliferation of poor communication in the digital age. The justice league of an increasingly popular form of intellectual sparring. They are... the Intellectual Dark Web.
 |
| image from knowyourmeme.com |
Dr. Jordan Peterson - University of Toronto Professor, clinical psychologist, and "most influential intellectual" in the world.
Powers: Master of jungian style psychology, mythology, and religion. Author of the best-selling "12 Rules for Life". His lectures on Bible stories and mythology have been received as if they were rock concerts.
Arch enemy: The "ideologically possessed left" (although he has spent significant work challenging the extreme right he has faced a stricter backlash from the left).
Weakness: A quick temper and a commitment to tell the truth how he sees it regardless of the consequences. He is characterized as a misogynist, trans-phobic and a poster-boy for the patriarchy and Alt-Right.
Sam Harris - Neuroscientist, philosopher, one of the "4 Horsemen of Atheism", podcaster and author.
Powers: Reason, sharp critical thinking, and commitment to intellectual integrity.
Arch Enemy: Toxic ideologies (ie. orthodoxy religions, most notably extremist Islam) and identity politics. Also, leftist media who purportedly misrepresent him and his views.
Weakness: A sensitivity to slander and misrepresentation mixed with an arguably naive notion that he can use his powers of reason to correct the inherent biases and maliciousness in those who misrepresent him. He is accused of being an Islamophobe, racist, and alt-right supporter (despite being noticeably liberal in almost every aspect and metric).
Joe Rogan - UFC commentator, comedian, and world's best podcaster ... yes that Joe Rogan.
Powers: Willingness to have interesting and curiosity provoking conversations with just about anyone. He has the capacity to hang with any intellectual heavyweight while maintaining the humility to ask the questions that us neophytes would need to ask to keep up. His podcast has a more expansive reach than any mainstream news media outlet.
Arch Enemy: Intellectually dishonest people and over-controlling media executives and producers who would sensor him if they had any influence on his product.
Weakness: He is the least willing to be counted among the IDW but has arguably the widest reach through his astronomically successful podcast. Through Joe, the others were able to rapidly grow their perspective audiences. He is often criticized for not screening guests or for giving platforms to extremists (ie. Alex Jones) to which he responds, "I just talk to people."
Ben Shapiro - political commentator and author, podcaster. Practising orthodox Jew. Champion of conservatives.
Powers - Strong convictions and convincing arguments, Ben Shapiro strikes fear into the casual , less-informed liberal. He has a willingness to debate his side while maintaining respect for his adversaries (or at least the adversaries he deems worthy). He is ultra-conservative at a time when it is uncool to be conservative, and that somehow makes him cool. In a Slate article he was deemed, "a conservative liberals can count on."
Arch-enemy: left-leaning main stream media who, he would argue, unfairly skew the message to serve their ideological purposes.
Weakness: Ideologically he finds himself at the furthest extreme within the group, with exception perhaps to Jordan, however his trait openness allows him to hang with the crew even when he disagrees vehemently about key issues on religion, free will, and morality.
Dave Rubin - talk show host, comedian, and political commentator.
Powers - The ability to straddle the political divide through his identity as a gay, married, classical liberal who also rejects the "regressive left" who adamantly rejected him. He moderates debates and discussions and probably cuts up Jordan Peterson's steaks for him.
Arch-enemy: The aforementioned "regressive left" whose orthodoxy matches or even exceeds the orthodoxy and dogma of the rigid right.
Weakness: As a gay-libertarian he runs the risk of nobody listening to him on either side of the political divide. Also, due to the rejection of him by the left he tends to go after the left disproportionately.
The Weinsteins - (not Harvey) brothers Eric and Bret, as well as Heather Heying (married to Bret).
Powers - If the IDW are the Avengers then Eric is Nick Fury. He gave the group its name (albeit ironically) and it was arguably through Bret and Heather's resignation from Evergreen College and the associated scandal that led to there being a need for a group of influential academics and media personalities to band together in order to have the difficult discussions that mainstream media and academia were not allowing to occur, all for the sake of advancing knowledge and reason, while bridging political and ideological gaps in their listeners. Bret and Heather are accomplished evolutionary biologists and Eric is an influential economist, all of whom lean left of center on most issues.
Arch-enemy: Any institution but particularly those of higher learning that restricts free-speech.
Weakness: Eric admits that he will judge a person on their analytical methods even if they arrive at the correct response. Maybe process over product can go too far.
Honorable mentions:
There are a number of other individuals closely tied to the IDW that are worth noting. While there is no such thing as card-carrying membership, you can count on hearing a few of these names while the others converse. The aforementioned crew tends to be seen as the core of the IDW because they are the ones with their own production channels, ie. podcast, youtube, etc.
Look out for progressive Muslims Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Majid Nawaaz. Quillette editor Claire Lehmann is an important figure as her magazine is committed to publishing articles that place empirical integrity over political correctness. Deborah Soh, who has a PhD in neuroscience will also get associated with the group from time to time. Psychology superstars Jonathan Haidt and Steven Pinker will often be brought up by these folks but they peculiarly are not usually lumped in with the IDW.
So should we be scared?
If you hold your convictions tight to the chest and feel uncomfortable with them being challenged then you will likely feel uncomfortable listening to Sam Harris and Jordan Peterson's one-on-one, rock concert like debates. This group is diverse in their political, religious, and ideological proclivities but they are united in their willingness to challenge their own tribes, whether that be fellow IDWers or their ethnic, religious, or academic communities.Be scared if you are a part of the academia that avoids credible scientific findings that are political powder-kegs.
Be scared if you don't like hearing the best arguments for causes that go against your beliefs.
But otherwise, I truly believe we should be encouraging these people who are courageously stepping in front of twitter mobs, ideologically possessed academics, and polarized politics to stand up for what they think is right and true, which is healthy, public, intellectually informed discussions about difficult topics.
The fact that Sam Harris and Ben Shapiro can go out to dinner after ripping each other to shreds on a stage in front of a few thousand people, while millions listen, is refreshing and praiseworthy. If we could all harness our inner Intellectual Dark Web, and have those difficult conversations with people whose arguments might be better than ours.
Perhaps then, after many long discussions, we might discover the intellectual light that shines through the darkness.
Comments
Post a Comment