The dark web is the least regulated part of internet – home to all manner of questionable, if not downright illegal, activities.
The ‘Intellectual Dark Web’ is, therefore, an over-dramatic metaphor – a buzz phrase for the loose grouping of academics, journalists and other thinkers profiled by Bari Weiss in the New York Times.
Some of the best-known names include Jordan Peterson, Sam Harris and our own Douglas Murray. Some are libertarians, others are liberals or left-wingers. Though a largely secular bunch, their altitudes to religion range from outright hostility through to friendly engagement. What they have in common though is that they have all, in some way, violated the strictures of contemporary political correctness.
But so what? That’s true of lots of people – probably most people. It’s not as if they don’t get to have their say or can’t find publications that reflect their point of view.
For instance, one of the biggest news websites in the world is Mail Online – an extension of Britain’s lavishly un-PC Daily Mail. Another massively successful example is Fox News – the right-wing echo chamber par excellence.
So what on earth is the New York Times doing talking about an ‘Intellectual Dark Web’ as if the opponents of the PC-left were dissidents in a totalitarian state?
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