Crawling The Intellectual Dark Web

How long have these people been incubating?

Welcome to my deep data dive into the IDW. How much impact can a counter culture movement really have? Who are these people? Who wrote books? Launched podcasts? Who’re the hold overs from TV fame? Radio? Celebrities? Academics? Journalists? Comedians? Most famous?

How long does it take to qualify for membership? Who has the biggest brain on the block? Which dark mind does the mainstream establishment fear the most? How many media hit pieces can one mind provoke? Will Jordan Peterson blow up the BBC? And what the hell is Kekistan?

Once we identify the most obvious members we can get to work. We need to compile search engine results. Add up books and articles. Count speaking engagements. TV Appearances. We can measure the various forms of success each has enjoyed on major social media platforms. But how do we even decide who qualifies for membership?

Eric Weinstein coined the term intellectual dark web to refer to a group of academics and personalities who publish outside mainstream media, using channels like YouTube, Twitter and public lectures.

May 30 ,2019

In order to reach a balanced standard that most of us can appreciate let’s infer that “dark” reflects a counter culture or not in the mainstream. Let’s also appreciate the word “intellectual” to constrain our list even further to those of a primarily academic or discussionary(I made this word up) background. Those who explore ideas…especially the ideas others are afraid to address. And finally they must appear in a network. Connected to each other through interviews, statements and reflexive association from the audience. To find one is to find the others…if you look closely enough.

Enjoy these summaries but don’t forget to review the core list at the bottom of this article.

The Searchables

Who are the top 5 dominating the search engines? In order of search results (Google+Bing):

Flying High In The Twitterverse

Who are the top 3 Twitter birds based on Followers?

Kekistan is a fictional country invented by users on 4chan’s /pol/ board as the tongue-in-cheek ethnic origin of “shitposters” known as “Kekistanis” who worship the ancient Egyptian deity Kek. — Know Your Meme (Not specifically associated with the IDW)

Victorious Vocations of 19 Original Members

16 Authors

8 Professors

7 Scientists

5 Podcasters

3 Radio Hosts

3 Historians

2 Comedians

2 Journalists

2 Lawyers

2 TV Famous

1 Publisher

The Serious Writers

Michael Shermer, science writer, historian of science, founder of The Skeptics Society, and editor-in-chief of its magazine Skeptic. Started significant public work in 1991. 18 Books, 22+ Articles and chapters. 793,000 results on Google. 122,000 results on Bing. 152K Followers on Twitter.

Steven Pinker, professor, cognitive psychologist, linguist, and science author. Started significant public work in 1994. 16 Books, 9+ Articles and Essays, 4,870,000 results on Google. 101,000 results on Bing. 430K Followers on Twitter.

The Legacies

Camille Paglia, professor, social critic, Started significant public works in 1984. 2 Books, 5 Collections of Essays, poems, and pictures. 454,000 results on Google. 65,600 results on Bing. Not on Twitter.

Dan Carlin, radio host, political commentator and podcaster. Started significant public work in 1988. ) Every episode of Hardcore History Podcast gets millions of downloads. 61 episodes. 2,830,000 results on Google. 173,000 results on Bing. 177K Followers in Twitter.

What’s Up With The 90s?

Alice Dreger, professor, historian, bioethicist, author, credited with seeing the identity wars coming all the way back in 2008. Started significant public career in 1995. 4 Books. 9+ Journal Articles. 173,000 results on Google. 41,100 results on Bing. 25.2K Followers on Twitter.

Christina Hoff Sommers, professor, author, philosopher, scholar. Started significant public work in 1994. 5 Books, 3+ Journal Articles. 361,000 results on Google. 141,000 results on Bing. 240K Followers on Twitter.

David Rubin, Comedian, podcaster. Started significant public work in 1999. 736,222 subscribers to Rubin Report on Youtube. Well known for his easy going respectful tone. 66,100,000 results on Google. 183,000 results on Bing. 403K Followers on Twitter.

Eric Weinstein, economist, writer, and managing director of Thiel Capital. Started significant public work in 1992. 1 Physics Theory, 7+ Journal Articles. 30,500,000 results on Google. 2,650,000 results on Bing. 101K Followers in Twitter.

Gad Saad, professor, evolutionary behavioural scientist. The Gadfather. Started significant public work in 1994. 3 Books, 20+ Journal Articles. 402,000 results on Google. 134,000 results on Bing. 108K Followers on Twitter.

Joe Rogan, martial arts expert, comedian, podcaster. Started significant public work in 1994 with Disney as a TV personality. 2,753,853 subscribers to Joe Rogan Experience podcast. One of the early pioneers of Podcasting. 8,800,000 results on Google. 283,000 results on Bing. 4.23M Followers on Twitter.

Jordan Peterson, clinical psychologist, professor of psychology at the University of Toronto. Started significant public work in 1991. 2 Books, 15+ Journal Articles. His latest book is the best selling Canadian book of all time. 57,900,000 results on Google. 4,570,000 results on Bing. 711K Followers on Twitter.

Larry Elder, radio host, lawyer, tv judge, political commentator. Started significant public work in 1994. 5 Books. A true capitalist, Mr. Elder was the first serious public intellectual to actually message me back on Twitter when I started Verboten Publishing. (With his going rate for podcast appearances) 8,960,000 results on Google. 403,000 results on Bing. 406K Followers on Twitter.

A Sort Of Renaissance

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, scholar, activist, former-politician, speaker. Started significant public work in 2002. 3 Books, 2 Collections of Essays. The vanguard of secular resistance to Islam. 551,000 results on Google. 230,000 results on Bing. 263K Followers on Twitter.

Bret Weinstein, professor, biologist, evolutionary theorist, podcast guest. Started significant public work in 2002. 2 Books, 1 Journal Article. Got railroaded out of Evergreen College. Also Eric’s younger brother. 545,000 results on Google. 897,000 results on Bing. 126K Followers on Twitter.

Douglas Murray, author, journalist, political commentator Started significant public work in 2000. 5 Books and Contributing Author to 3 more. Possibly the clearest speaker on the largest problems with modern Islam’s introduction into the West. 161,000,000 results on Google. 150,000 results on Bing. 134K Followers on Twitter.

Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist and professor of ethical leadership at New York University’s Stern School of Business. Started significant public work in 2002. 3 Books, 8+ Journal Articles. A major player in staking out the middle ground on which the future of Western society will rest. 537,000 results on Google. 56,800 results on Bing. 99.3K Followers on Twitter.

Maajid Nawaz, radio host, activist, politician. Started significant public work in 2001. 2 Books, 2 Essays. Once a jihadist, this reformed terrorist has made it his life’s mission to help others like he once was escape radical Islam by embracing secular humanism. As he was saved, so shall he save others still. Redemption. 356,000 results on Google. 41,100 results on Bing. 202K Followers on Twitter.

And Finally, The Last Of The Real Ones

Ben Shapiro, lawyer, journalist, podcaster, commentator, author. Started significant public work in 2004. 9 Books, 710,216 subscribers to The Dailywire podcast on Youtube. 29,600,000 results on Google. 153,000 results on Bing. 1.4M Followers on Twitter.

Sam Harris, neuroscientist, philosopher, author. Started significant public work in 2004. 7 Books. One of the Four Horsemen of Atheism. Famously argued with Ben Affleck on Realtime with Bill Maher where he was called gross and racist over his stance on radical Islam. Luckily, Sam was more than prepared to intellectually bitch slap Mr. Affleck back into a Daredevil daze. 82,500,000 results on Google. 138,000 results on Bing. 1.07M Followers in Twitter.

Is 2004 special? Was a critical mass reached or a counter force revealed? Maybe the rise of the 4 Horsemen ending in 2011 with Hitch’s death eclipsed the dark matter of the intellectual web. Maybe it’s the incubation period. Ben Shapiro hatched in 2004, he wasn’t “significant” to the dark web until 2016. That’s 12 years. Dave Rubin 1999, noticed in his own right in 2015. 16 years! Are we about to “discover” a new batch?

Average Incubation Period based on 2016 Dark Web Ascension

379/19 = 19.94 year average between first public work and ascension.

(379–32)/18 = 19.27 if we exclude Camille Paglia as an outlier. 19 years is as good an estimate as any.

With it being 14 years (as of 2018) since the last known batch….the next major dark minds shouldn’t show up until around 2020 at the earliest assuming there are any more left unrevealed.

If Douglas Murray was early for his generation we may see another revealed soon. Given historical trends any given year with a new member ends up having 1–3 with 1994 being the unique exception with 5. It’s not uncommon for 3 to 6 years to go between (synchronized with graduate programs?) so we may not see a significant new member until 2022. 2024 if there’s another in Ben and Sam’s generation and as late as 2027ish if we’re waiting for a fresh generation hatched in 2008ish.

We recently noticed Jordan Peterson after decades of posting his lectures online and no-one can really predict the future. Personally, I enjoy watching young rebels like Candice Owens and Lindsey Shepard shake the internet, but they’re too young to account for the IDW in the near term.

In 20 years or so they might step through the veil. Will they replicate the reach of a Steven Pinker? Or satisfy themselves with a more traditional academic career like Camille Paglia?

Only time will tell.