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The “Intellectual Dark Web,” explained: what Jordan Peterson has in common with the alt-right

Summary:
A controversial New York Times article describes several popular white intellectuals as marginalized “renegades.” What is the Intelectual Dark Web? It is a politically diverse movement, but mainly it is about right-wingers who don't like postmodernism. Centuries of dominant white male rule are coming to an end, and they don't like it. Members of the intellectual dark web want to be at the center of intellectual debate. But the center has shifted. To understand the unhappiness of dark web intellectuals, you have to go back in time. The past few years have seen extraordinary changes in how left-wingers, liberals, and liberal centrists understand themselves. But go back a bit further and marriage equality for gay people was a controversial issue, and women’s rights and the status of

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A controversial New York Times article describes several popular white intellectuals as marginalized “renegades.”


The “Intellectual Dark Web,” explained: what Jordan Peterson has in common with the alt-right


What is the Intelectual Dark Web? It is a politically diverse movement, but mainly it is about right-wingers who don't like postmodernism. Centuries of dominant white male rule are coming to an end, and they don't like it.

Members of the intellectual dark web want to be at the center of intellectual debate. But the center has shifted.


To understand the unhappiness of dark web intellectuals, you have to go back in time. The past few years have seen extraordinary changes in how left-wingers, liberals, and liberal centrists understand themselves. But go back a bit further and marriage equality for gay people was a controversial issue, and women’s rights and the status of African Americans in American life were the targets of intellectually lazy speculation.

Precisely because we have changed so much, we have forgotten how bad things used to be. For decades, contrarianism on questions of race and gender — ranging from opposition to certain feminist projects or to affirmative action, to flirtation with the idea that black culture and even black brains were intrinsically inferior — was part of the intellectual mainstream of the center. Andrew Sullivan published an entire issue of the New Republic devoted to presenting, and debating, Charles Murray’s claim that black people were, on average, less intelligent than white people.

The “Intellectual Dark Web,” explained: what Jordan Peterson has in common with the alt-right

Mike Norman
Mike Norman is an economist and veteran trader whose career has spanned over 30 years on Wall Street. He is a former member and trader on the CME, NYMEX, COMEX and NYFE and he managed money for one of the largest hedge funds and ran a prop trading desk for Credit Suisse.

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