Intellectual Dark Web



Is there anything they've done? 'Cause all they do is talk. Is there anything they've built? Is there one appliance that they have anything to do with? Have they came up with something even like the Rotato? Which peels and slices potatoes as you cook? Is there one thing anything they've done except whack off Elon Musk and talk?...You've got all these people that are all geniuses and you can't find the thing they do? What is any of THEIR JOBS? Research? They're just talking about trans people. And these are the best minds of our time?!

The Intellectual Dark Web (IDW) is a neologism coined by economist Eric Weinstein to refer to an informal group of (mostly right-wing, libertarian and centrist) pundits, media producers, academics, and so on. The term itself functions as a general meme. There is no actual organization, or movement which it represents. In other words, anyone can say they are a member, and no one has the authority to deny it.

Individuals associated with the term

 * Eric Weinstein, American economist, mathematician, conspiracy theorist, and managing director of Peter Thiel's Thiel Capital.
 * Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Somali-born American anti-Islam activist.
 * Sam Harris, American neuroscientist and one of the "Four Horsemen" of New Atheism.
 * Claire Lehmann, Australian alt-right editor-in-chief and founder of Quillette.
 * Maajid Nawaz, British activist who advocates for a "moderate, secular Islam" and Trumpian conspiracy theories.
 * Steven Pinker, American linguist, psychologist, and court witness for Jeffrey Epstein.
 * Jordan Peterson, Canadian clinical psychologist and social conservative activist
 * Joe Rogan, American Ultimate Fighting Championship commentator and host of The Joe Rogan Experience
 * Dave Rubin, American libertarian/self-proclaimed "classical liberal" host of The Rubin Report
 * Ben Shapiro, American conservative pundit, conspiracy theorist, former-Breitbart writer and co-founder of The Daily Wire
 * Douglas Murray, British ultra-nationalist and conspiracy theorist.
 * Michael Shermer, American science writer, editor-in-chief of the magazine Skeptic, and bicyclist
 * Christina Hoff Sommers, American writer for American Enterprise Institute
 * Bret Weinstein, (Eric's brother), American biologist and conspiracy theorist
 * , (Bret's wife), American biologist, transphobe and conspiracy theorist

Newer non-core additions to the network include:
 * , American conservative Quillette columnist affiliated with the Manhattan Institute and critic of CRT.
 * , American conservative economist affiliated with the Manhattan Institute, critic of CRT, and hosts "the Glenn Show" with John McWhorter.
 * , American conservative linguist affiliated with the Manhattan Institute, and critic of CRT.
 * James Damore, American Google employee turned reactionary clickbait publisher and outrage activist.
 * Niall Ferguson, (Ayaan's husband), Scottish pseudohistorian and neoconservative.
 * , Canadian neuroscientist, columnist for Quillette, and TERF.

Patreon
After Sargon of Akkad was banned from Patreon, Rubin, Peterson and Harris left Patreon in protest. Since then, Rubin and Peterson have suggested creating a Patreon equivalent.

A gateway to alt-right radicalization
In 2019 a study from the by Manoel Horta Ribeiro et al. found the Intellectual Dark Web's YouTube channels were a gateway from the "alt-lite" to alt-right radicalization. The study looked at 331,000 videos that an algorithm had classified as right-wing, and analyzed 72 million YouTube comments. A large number of those users who had posted comments on IDW channels later migrated to leaving comments on more radical YouTube channels. As Ribeiro puts it, "there is migration among users from the Alt-lite and the I.D.W. to the Alt-right," confirming that less extreme right-wing content did indeed serve as a gateway of sorts for radicalization.