"Intellectual Dark Web"

The intellectual dark web (often abbreviated to IDW) is a neologism coined by American mathematician Eric Weinstein and popularized by Bari Weiss in a 2018 editorial in The New York Times. In its original formulation it referred to collection of public personalities who oppose what they see as the dominance of progressive identity politics and political correctness in the media and academia.[1][2][3] The term jokingly compares the IDW's opposition to mainstream opinion to what is illicitly found on the dark web.[4]
Weinstein coined the term "intellectual dark web" after his brother, Bret Weinstein, resigned from the Evergreen State College in response to a campus controversy. The term is a semi-ironic reference to a particular group of academics and podcast hosts.[9][10][11] The neologism received wide discussion in May 2018, after becoming the subject of a column by Bari Weiss in the opinion section of The New York Times.[12][13] Individuals associated with the intellectual dark web, in addition to Eric and Bret Weinstein, include Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Sam Harris, Heather Heying, Claire Lehmann, Douglas Murray, Maajid Nawaz, Jordan Peterson, Steven Pinker, Joe Rogan, Dave Rubin, Ben Shapiro, Lindsay Shepherd, Michael Shermer, Debra Soh, and Christina Hoff Sommers.[10][14] They do not claim to share a common set of political ideas, with some identifying with the left and others with the right.[15][10] Weiss wrote that they share the experience of having been "purged from institutions that have become increasingly hostile to unorthodox thought".[10][16]
Writing in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Jacob Hamburger describes the intellectual dark web as "The first distinct intellectual movement to have emerged during the Trump presidency."[15]
== Rhizomata ==
Leftism; Critical Theory; Heterodoxy; Free Speech; Anti-Totalitarianism; Defense Against the Dark Arts; Liberty
Category:Cultures
Category:Internet