The New IDW
Since its public birth in late 2017 on stage with Sam Harris, Ben Shapiro, and Eric Weinstein, the ‘IDW’ has swiftly evolved from concept to category. In conversation, Weinstein had glibly referred to a group of intellectuals speaking uncomfortable truths and challenging consensus as the “intellectual dark web, or IDW.” Although intended to be a loose descriptor for those who are difficult to classify and eager to promote public discourse, useful in directing our attention to disparate voices of reason and idea exploration, the IDW has since homogenized and been hijacked by imposters.
In a climate of rising sociopolitical strife, bitter cancel culture wars, and partisan media, the IDW pushed back on the creep of illiberalism and drew widespread appeal as the average person, frustrated by the stringency of new social rules, looked to its trusted dignitaries. People branded with the IDW moniker came from the left and the right, but they seemed to coalesce around criticizing the extremism of the new left. Where liberals were once thought to strongly embrace and defend Enlightenment principles, including liberty and freedom of speech, an intolerant, postmodern faction that manifested within universities became vociferous enough to influence the mainstream.
While much of the IDW was comprised of intellectual giants who had gained a following over the years with books and speaking events, there were just as many academics who were otherwise unknown outside of intellectual and educational circles. The postmodern trend presented an opening for members of the IDW to reach a wider audience, as people looked for remnants of reason and hard won progress. In this instance, it was hip to be contrarian because it simply meant being sane.
Because there was such an appetite for heterodox thinking and urgency to save liberal values, shaming the excesses of a once restrained group became not only popular but lucrative. Suddenly intellectuals such as Sam Harris, Jordan Peterson, Eric and Bret Weinstein, Ben Shapiro, and Jonathan Haidt were appearing on every podcast and being offered on YouTube autoplay, being showcased in articles and rising on Amazon book lists, their content in no short supply. If ever there was a time to capitalize on being sharp and incisive, now was it.
But what started as a way to identify compelling thinkers with something to contribute, in a way, curdled into a competition for who could be the most superficially contrarian. Some members became either hell bent on perpetually ridiculing the Left at the expense of good judgment or so persuaded by their own need for acclaim and continued relevancy that they began issuing nonsensical and often bizarre assessments under the guise of being nonconformist. The “hot takes”, the scathing reprobation, the flirtation with essentialism, the incessant search for examples of ideological inferiority — public rants that failed to improve sensemaking but certainly got attention.
Today, the IDW has become nearly synonymous with ‘anti-woke’. Its members are expected to be edgy, disagreeable, and constantly in opposition to bleeding-heart liberals. Because many of its most vocal members have taken this on as their brand, and have benefited from it in profit or popularity, the IDW has collapsed into a monolithic group of whingeing, sneering, once-great guardians of truth-pursuing and communication. It’s even questionable whether they honestly believe many of their assertions, or if they’re just responding to the pressure of a fast-paced world demanding their incendiary commentary.
The door has been left open for new members to waltz in without any kind of expertise, as long as they have the right kind of vitriol to sling and have read enough of the original IDW members’ work that they can peddle it as their own. The IDW has unwittingly accepted imposters into their cohort, as Twitter and Facebook grants individuals the same space as it does celebrities. There, posts are rarely checked for plagiarism and other people’s ideas, cloaked in grandiloquence and intentionally confusing locution, can be passed off as novel, esoteric, and important. And suddenly a star is born.
The IDW has passed its prime and it’s time for disbandment. Sam Harris has even recently decided it was time to distance himself from the group as he recognized its move from description to organization to hypocrisy. Its remaining members may actually find it liberating, and turning their backs on what the IDW now represents would ironically make them contrarian.
