Hold on to your thumbs, feed scrollers! Since current social media monopolizers are unable to provide a platform that doesn’t leak or sell our private photos and messages to teenage hackers and data vendors, there are new, edgy, next level digital communication platforms coming our way!

But before I analyze the Jordan Peterson-backed “thinkspot” (currently in beta testing), I have to acknowledge how podcasts and digital networks have transformed modern communication — enabling popular commentators to reach millions of people and to even create their own platforms, but also proliferating structural problems that erode media literacy and spread disinformation. (Full disclosure: I am not a fan of Mr. Peterson and this will not be a glowing review of thinkspot, so continue at your own peril.)

The *Insert Here* Experience Podcast

On its face, a podcast doesn’t exactly scream “digital revolution.” Defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “episodic series of digital audio files that a user can download in order to listen,” podcasts used to be the domain of U.S. comedians who were early adopters in using long-form audio to promote their shows and build an audience. In hindsight, it made sense that comedians pushed the boundaries of dialogue outside of mainstream media, as the best of them — Richard Pryor, Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Bill Hicks, to name a few — intentionally positioned themselves outside of the ideological confines of media conglomerates, which is what made their commentary stand out.

Today, podcasts are an industry of their own due to numerous benefits associated with their production and dissemination. To marketers and commentators, they represent an opportunity to reach millions of listeners, and to the cord-cutters and workers around the world, they facilitate a small, but gratifying escape from the theater on corporate media and the soullessness in the modern workplace, one headphone at a time. It’s easy to follow a show if you have the privilege to be online — most podcasts offer at least some free episodes and followers can fast-forward ads and listen anywhere.

Why is podcasting such an effective marketing tool? Consider the time, energy, and focus that’s needed to keep up with a show that’s pumping hours of audio each week. The intimacy that exists between listeners and podcast hosts is the stuff marketers dream about. It is this highly-personalized bond that causes fans to go crazy about their favorite podcast and buy the products recommended by their favorite host. This is why popular podcasters, who often use YouTube as an auxiliary content-sharing and streaming platform, wield considerable power when it comes to shaping YouTube’s celebrity environment and thus the national discourse, which increasingly revolves around tweets and vetted social media accounts.

Not all podcasts are controversial and polarizing; if you are looking for a show which focuses on murder mysteries and historical trivia, you probably won’t find yourself in a heated exchange about serialized audio files and their managers. But if you choose to get involved in a podcast that deals with political matters, you would most likely be drawn into a web of affiliations, networks, conflict (real and manufactured), and sharp opinions for and against podcasting personalities.

None of that mattered back when I first followed the The Joe Rogan Experience (JRE), a popular podcast hosted by comedian Joe Rogan, which today has 7.37 million subscribers on YouTube with millions downloading podcast episodes each month. What got me interested in the JRE a decade ago wasn’t just listening to “real” conversations, but the fact that there was no other place to discover early iconic guests and friends of the show, such as Duncan Trussell, Christopher Ryan, Graham Hancock, Aubrey Marcus, and Danielle Bolelli, whom I consider brilliant at what they do — writing, research, comedy, and good conversations. The JRE and other podcasts provided an opening to adversarial perspectives (for free!) at a time when corporate media had nothing of the sort.

The nature of Rogan’s podcast is that eventually there will be a guest with whom you fundamentally disagree, as the prolific comedian invites commentators from all sides of the political spectrum. For me, one of those guests is Jordan Peterson, the Canadian psychologist who has received significant media coverage in the U.S. for his opinion on gender-neutral pronouns and the “radical Left.”

I am not a fan of Peterson — not because of an inherent fault in him as I don’t know the guy, but because I don’t find any value in what he says. I consider his rants about cultural Marxism nonsensical, as they are reminiscent of a conspiracy theory with a long and toxic history, according to which radical left-wingers and Marxists aim to bring down Western civilization. While these concepts require extensive knowledge in history and political science, it seems that Peterson, a clinical psychologist, primarily utilizes them in a crusade against “radically left-leaning” institutions. That is to stay, although he talks a lot about Marxism and the Soviet Union, the professor often ends up shallowly condemning leftist movements and blaming academic institutions, rather than making valid historical comparisons.

“These Marxist ideas are very attractive to compassionate intellectuals and we don’t have good bad examples like the Soviet Union around that everybody can point to and go yeah, yeah, well that sounds good, but what about the murderous death camps and the millions of people who are suffering,” Peterson told Joe Rogan as he plunged into his familiar rant in the first 15 minutes of their first podcast in 2016 (from JRE episode #877):

… people have no historical memory, like my students, and that’s partly because they are taught so badly in school, they have no idea what happened in the Soviet Union … they have absolutely no idea, they know a little bit about the Second World War, maybe, and of course, people generally know about the Holocaust, but they have no idea about what happened in the Soviet Union, so they have no idea where these ideas can lead. And universities and the high schools are so full of people who are radically left-leaning that the students are never taught any proper history. They are taught about the evils of capitalism … it’s not like any system is perfect, but there’s a difference between imperfect and consciously murderous.

The pattern of cherry-picking historical facts, portraying academics as “radical Left,” and somehow comparing death camps to capitalism — can be seen throughout Peterson’s particular opinions about U.S. politics and culture, which include questioning if U.S. establishment Democrats are radical, calling diversity, inclusivity, and equity “a deadly triad,” admitting he has monetized “social justice warriors,” and ranting about sexual displays in the workplace.

For these reasons, I don’t engage much with the man’s opinions, but I also don’t deny his popularity and influence in the U.S. and around the world. What I find more fascinating is the niche which has opened up for attacking leftist ideas from a perspective of a “neutral,” comedic, or politically-ambiguous intellectual, rather than a racist attack dog like Limbaugh or Hannity. It makes sense to me that the presence of such commentators in the mainstream is crucial if the Republican Party wants to attract more supporters. Perhaps this explains why, in the age of Trumbo, so many “influencers” and social media personalities find themselves blaming student activists and their professors, as well as parents, socialism, pronouns, entire generations, and identity politics for today’s biggest problems.

The most notable manifestation of this trend is a group known as the “Intellectual Dark Web” (IDW). Joe Rogan, who has had popular members of the IDW on his show, is often lumped with the likes of Peterson, Ben Shapiro, Sam Harris, Eric Weinstein, Dave Rubin, Peter Thiel, and other “intellectual renegades” who use their credentials and perceived neutrality to discuss “dangerous” ideas. The inclusion of such guests on the JRE changed the issues that were discussed on the podcast, which made it easy for the outrage crowd to attack Rogan.

Joe’s take on the matter — “I talk to people. And I record it. That’s it” — doesn’t satisfy those who audit radicalization pathways on YouTube and often accuse the comedian of “platforming” various controversial figures, who in turn expose YouTube’s users to more explicit right-wing propaganda (though YouTube’s lack of recommendation-related data makes such claims difficult to prove). In any case, because of JRE’s growing public influence and dominance on YouTube, Rogan, whom I consider to be left-leaning, has been involved in numerous scandals which have originated from things he has said on the air.

When in 2020 Joe said he would “probably support” Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary, the liberal and right-wing media establishment — who have consistently used their platforms to attack the progressive politician — weren’t thrilled about Rogan’s probable support. Because of his previous comments on transgender fighters competing alongside women in mixed martial arts (Joe is a martial arts expert and UFC commentator), the Human Rights Campaign accused him of attacking “transgender people, gay men, women, people of colour and countless marginalised groups at every opportunity,” while CNN claimed the comedian had a history of making “racist, homophobic and transphobic comments.” The political organization MoveOn urged Sen. Sanders and his campaign to “apologize and stop elevating” Rogan’s endorsement.

Rogan has since addressed the allegations , claiming that his comments on transgender fighters are coming from his expertise in martial arts and not discrimination. “Have I made inappropriate jokes? Yeah, for sure, I am a comedian — especially if you are drinking and smoking pot, you are swinging,” Rogan said on a recent episode of the JRE.

While liberal centrists used a few snippets out of hundreds of podcasting hours to tarnish Rogan’s reputation, and urged Sanders to reject Joe’s support, right-wing pundits used the opportunity to call Bernard’s record “consistently awful” and attributed Rogan’s preferences to poor judgement.

This is what happens when you go against both sides of the U.S. oligarchy, which the comedian clearly did by supporting the “wrong” candidate.

Few commentators actually analyzed why Rogan said he supports Bernie — the fact that Sanders has been “insanely consistent” his entire life. Even fewer mentioned that a key proposal championed by Sanders, “Medicare for All,” would confront the massive health disparities faced by the LGBTQ+ community. Per Sanders’s website, the single-payer, national health insurance program would cover “gender affirming surgeries, increase access to PrEP, remove barriers to mental health care and bolster suicide prevention efforts.”

As it often happens, news pundits exploited Rogan’s comments for their own political agenda by attacking him and Sanders for the “crime” of agreeing with each other, not the substance of what they had to say. In a sense, the overblown reaction to Rogan’s support of Sanders (a politician who clearly isn’t fancied by the ruling class) was an attempt to delegitimize the role of independent shows like the JRE in the U.S. political discourse, and to draw a line between it and places like CNN, MSNBC, New York Times, Washington Post, Politico, and Fox News which don’t have to explain their “probable support” to the public.

Projecting the faults of interviewees onto podcasters, comedians, and journalists is a slippery slope toward public witch hunts and calls for censorship. This is especially true about Rogan, whose conversations with Bernie Sanders, Abby Martin, and Cornel West, along with influential conservative commentators like Peterson, are proof of his ability to portray diverse ideas without pushing a particular worldview. His critics on the Left conveniently forget to mention that Rogan has amplified independent commentators and progressive intellectuals who are practically blacklisted on mainstream media.

One has to wonder why highly-paid critics are more interested in psychoanalyzing and attacking a comedian, than standing up for brave whistleblowers such as Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange. Then again, it’s precisely mainstream media’s inability to deliver anything other than a Chuck Todd or a Dr. Phil — and social media companies’ failure to stop click-baiting the public — that have motivated individuals and business groups to create their own platforms where they control the flow of information and revenue. Hopefully, for the better.

This brings us to the Jordan Peterson-backed thinkspot (ts), a “censorship-free” online communication platform that Peterson announced on his podcast with, you guessed it, Joe Rogan.

The official announcement about thinkspot, posted through Twitter.

The Birth of Thinkspot: A Scandalous Affair

I had to start my analysis of thinkspot with The Joe Rogan Experience, and podcasting in general, because so much about the story of thinkspot revolves around podcasts, YouTube videos, and Intellectual Dark Web personalities.

The platform’s origin story itself is shrouded in conflict, following Peterson’s public critique and leave from Patreon, a membership platform that allows creators to run a subscription service, which is now essentially a competitor of thinkspot. The reason why Peterson left Patreon, outlined by him in a video with right-wing pundit Dave Rubin, was because the platform banned another YouTube personality, “Sargon of Akkad,” whose real name is Carl Benjamin, for saying the following on another creator’s YouTube account:

I just can’t be bothered with people who chose to treat me like this. It’s really annoying. Like, I — . You’re acting like a bunch of n*****s, just so you know. You act like white n*****s. Exactly how you describe black people acting is the impression I get dealing with the Alt Right. I’m really, I’m just not in the mood to deal with this kind of disrespect. Look, you carry on, but don’t expect me to then have a debate with one of your f**gots.…Like why would I bother?…Maybe you’re just acting like a n****r, mate? Have you considered that? Do you think white people act like this? White people are meant to be polite and respectful to one another, and you guys can’t even act like white people, it’s really amazing to me.

So, Patreon banned Carl for making the comments above, which provoked Peterson, Rubin, and Sam Harris, another Intellectual Dark Web-affiliated personality, to leave Patreon and start thinking of a better subscription-based platform.

Here’s how Patreon responded to criticism coming from the IDW that banning “Sargon” constituted political bias and censorship:

Some people worry that we are reviewing content not posted on Patreon. As a funding platform, we don’t host much content, but we help fund creations across the internet. As a result, we review creations posted on other platforms that are funded through Patreon. Sargon is well known for his collaborations with other creators and so we apply our community guidelines to those collaborations, including this interview. We understand some people don’t believe in the concept of hate speech and don’t agree with Patreon removing creators on the grounds of violating our Community Guidelines for using hate speech. We have a different view. Patreon does not and will not condone hate speech in any of its forms. We stand by our policies against hate speech. We believe it’s essential for Patreon to have strong policies against hate speech to build a safe community for our creators and their patrons.

You don’t have to be a particularly radical individual to conclude that Patreon did the right thing when it disassociated itself from Carl Benjamin. Yet, Peterson and company seemed to think otherwise. Even though they used the conflict to drum up support for what eventually became thinkspot, the Intellectual Dark Web members did not reference the transcript posted by Patreon. To the contrary — Carl was invited to be one of the first testers of thinkspot, along with other selected individuals (more on that later).

While Peterson and Rubin admitted that Patreon had provided them a tremendous opportunity to generate money from supporters, they disagreed with Patreon’s “proclivity to censor,” and said that leaving the platform was a “major hit” for their finances. This is how the idea for the censorship-free thinkspot seems to have been born. It’s a messy origin story, but one that stays true to the the sensationalism that often follows those in the Intellectual Dark Web constellation.

“Once you’re on our platform, we won’t take you down, unless we’re ordered to by a US court of law. That’s basically the idea. So we’re trying to make an anti-censorship platform,” Peterson said in a June, 2019 interview about the platform.

It is now February, 2020 and I have access to thinkspot’s beta version, which is where I made my first and last impressions of the platform.

Peterson’s Platform

At first glance, thinkspot doesn’t differ much from its competitors. There’s a “Discover” feed, which features select contributors, and a “My thinkspot” feed where users curate the content they want to see.

Peterson’s work and opinions on things are prominently featured, which is what you’d expect from a platform “backed” by Peterson. That is to say, if you don’t have at least some interest in the man’s books, opinions, ideas, and fellow contributors, thinkspot probably won’t be the place for you, at least in its beta stage.