Astral Codex Ten

Intellectual Dark Web

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Intellectual Dark Web

Article

Intellectual Dark Web is a recurring concept in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 4 times across 4 issues between May 10, 2021 and August 19, 2022. The archive places it in contexts such as “This New York Times article on the Intellectual Dark Web essentially turned the semi-respectability of anti-SJWism into common knowledge”; “why aren’t there equally famous figures on the left? The social justice community is an order of magnitude bigger than the intellectual dark web”; “the first few people to get on board the New Atheist, woke, alt-right, dirtbag left, and intellectual dark web movements”. It most often appears alongside Jordan Peterson, alt-right, David Chapman.

Metadata

  • Category: Concepts
  • Mention count: 4
  • Issue count: 4
  • First seen: May 10, 2021
  • Last seen: August 19, 2022

Appears In

Source Context

Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.

The Rise And Fall Of Online Culture Wars
May 10, 2021 · Original source
The first milestone on that path was Milo Yiannopoulos. As outrageous and offensive as he was, he was actually a step above everyone who had come before him in terms of visibility and respectability - at least nobody expected him to shoot up a school or anything. The second milestone was Jordan Peterson, who was an obvious step up in respectability beyond Milo. There was a really interesting period in 2016 when the media was trying to decide whether to unite in character-assassinating Peterson the same way it had character-assassinated all previous people in this space, or treat him as some sort of interesting and potentially sympathetic phenomenon, and it decided on the interesting phenomenon angle. After that, being anti-SJW lost about 90% of its stigma, to the point where people would roll their eyes instead of freaking out. This New York Times article on the Intellectual Dark Web essentially turned the semi-respectability of anti-SJWism into common knowledge, and makes a fascinating contrast with the TIME article on MRAs linked above.
Inline links: New York Times
Contra Hoel On Aristocratic Tutoring
March 22, 2022 · Original source
I’ll give one even weirder example. A few years ago, I wrote a very political post, called Can Things Be Both Popular And Silenced? It touched on “guru” culture in politically incorrect discourse - the phenomenon of people like Jordan Peterson who became really famous by saying controversial things - and it asked: why aren’t there equally famous figures on the left? The social justice community is an order of magnitude bigger than the intellectual dark web, so how come it hasn’t produced proportionately greater celebrities? Ibram X Kendi, maybe. Ta-Nehisi Coates, ten years ago. But how come they aren’t bigger and more numerous.
Inline links: Can Things Be Both Popular And Silenced
A Cyclic Theory Of Subcultures
August 10, 2022 · Original source
Google’s first employee became their Director of Technology and made $900 million. Jesus’s first follower became the Bishop of Rome; one in every thousand people alive is named after him. The first few people to make websites in 1995, blogs in 2005, or YouTube channels in 2015 got outsized followings that they were able to leverage into higher status later on. The first few people to get on board the New Atheist, woke, alt-right, dirtbag left, and intellectual dark web movements all had easy opportunities to become famous; the next few thousand at least had the chance to be well-connected veterans.
Highlights From The Comments On Subcultures
August 19, 2022 · Original source
What was the original movement for which the emergence and fragmentation of the intellectual dark web was the involution?
The NYT piece Meet The Renegades Of The Intellectual Dark Web is a great example of what it looks like when a movement is starting its growth phase. Newspapers write articles about how edgy and cool you are and how the establishment is afraid of your growing power. The couple of people who joined the movement out of genuine conviction when it was unpopular or made them look weird (eg Jordan Peterson, Eric Weinstein) get catapulted to superstardom.
Inline links: Meet The Renegades Of The Intellectual Dark Web