Stop Assuming The Intellectual Dark Web Is A Political Movement

[Sanguine]

What should intellectuals do when everything they believe in regarding individual liberty is recast as cultural imperialism?
Libby Emmons
By Libby Emmons   
April 23, 2019

The Intellectual Dark Web (IDW) has been badly misunderstood by thinkers on both the left and right of the political spectrum. Perhaps the problem is assuming that people who malign this group of classically liberal pundits are thinking, because in many ways, that’s exactly the opposite of what they’re doing.

Justin Charity, a political writer for The Ringer, recently wrote an attempted takedown of the IDW crowd. He posited that these guys like Joe Rogan, Sam Harris, Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson, and Claire Lehmann are always complaining about political correctness, restrictive speech rules on college campuses, cancel culture, wokeness, and wrongthink.

Charity writes:

    The term ‘political correctness’ unites conservatives, libertarians, and vintage liberals in defense of various comedians, rappers, and columnists; and now ‘wrongthink’ unites conservatives and libertarians in defense of George Zimmerman and Alex Jones. ‘Wrongthinkers’ aren’t frustrated with liberals who have somehow failed to discover them, their biases, their anxieties, and their ideas; ‘wrongthinkers’ are frustrated with liberals who have declined to take their ideas and their style seriously in the first place....

https://thefederalist.com/2019/04/23/stop-assuming-intellectual-dark-web-political-movement/

I don't know that those of us on the right have misunderstood. I think we are misunderstood though.

[truth_seeker]

I believe the IDW people themselves, view it more in terms of alternative media.

For instance Joe Rogan has more followers than CNN or MSNBC

Peterson's book sold over 5 million copies.

Unlike mainstream media, they aren't limited to pre-produced 5 minute scripts.

The long-format discussion of important ideas is their product.

Several of them have popullar podcasts with good subjects and interesting guests.

It is truly amazing that a "jounalist could listen to them, and then call any of them "right wing."

[The_Reader_David]

It is truly amazing that a "jounalist could listen to them, and then call any of them "right wing."

But "right wing" has never had any' meaning other than "opposed to the Left".  Everyone classified as part of the IDW opposes at least some part of the current Left's program, and does so with such clarity that even a journalist will notice.  Thus journalists listen to them and call them "right wing".