The Intellectual Dark Web: A History (and Possible Future)

Challenging the restrictive and relativistic intellectual and cultural orthodoxies on the left that engulfed universities, the media, and big tech in the 2010s, the Intellectual Dark Web - a loose collective of politically diverse intellectuals, commentators, and scholars critical of political correctness, identity politics, and cancel culture - relied on alternative platforms like podcasts, digital magazines, and YouTube to advocate for free speech, universal rights, and individual liberty. While the term is most commonly identified with Jordan Peterson, Sam Harris, Ben Shapiro, Claire Lehmann, Douglas Murray, and Joe Rogan, the group's concerns extended more broadly to include a wide range of individuals, including Steven Pinker, Jonathan Haidt, and Elon Musk. Although its coherence began to unravel in the early 2020s due to internal differences, such as over the response to COVID-19 and climate change, it played a determining role in changing the politico-cultural landscape, influencing both electorally successful right-wing platforms and playing a major role in the rise of an independent media ecosystem that is today in many ways more influential than mainstream media.