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IPFS News Link • Internet

Why the Intellectual Dark Web Had to Go Dark

• https://fee.org by Tyler Brandt

Recently, The New York Times ran an exposé on the "Intellectual Dark Web." The piece profiles all the heavy hitters of the movement: Jordan B. Peterson, Bret Weinstein, Joe Rogan, Dave Rubin, and Sam Harris. The author, Bari Weiss, describes in detail how each thinker was alienated from their professional community before building a new network and audience on the internet. The piece characterizes the Intellectual Dark Web as a shadowy underground of renegade iconoclasts who dare to challenge the orthodoxies of academia and the media.

While this characterization is not far off, the article glosses over the reason why these thinkers have been ostracized. The political climate is not hospitable to truth-seekers. The only reason the Intellectual Dark Web is "dark" is because it is controversial to be an open inquirer.