“I know what you’re thinking, ‘cause right now I’m thinking the same thing. Actually, I’ve been thinking it ever since I got here: Why oh why didn’t I take the blue pill?”
—Cypher, The Matrix
In the chaotic wake of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, Sam Harris formally resigned from the Intellectual Dark Web. “Allow me to take this moment to turn in my imaginary membership card to this imaginary organization” he told his podcast audience. He acknowledged that the label had always been tongue-in-cheek, and there was nothing to link its members together beyond their willingness to discuss difficult topics in public. And now, some of them were “sounding fairly bonkers.”
The term Intellectual Dark Web, or IDW, was coined by American venture capitalist Eric Weinstein and popularized by Bari Weiss in a 2018 New York Times article. It had no clear definition but described a loose grouping of public figures including (among others) Eric and Bret Weinstein, Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro, Sam Harris, Joe Rogan, and Dave Rubin. While these people had a kaleidoscope of opinions, they were united by at least three things. First, a stated commitment to free speech and open debate, even on controversial and uncomfortable topics. Second, a willingness to challenge prevailing progressive liberal orthodoxies. And third, and perhaps most significantly, success in reaching a huge online audience. At the time of Weiss’s article, Shapiro’s podcast was getting 15 million downloads a month, Harris’s podcast getting one million listeners an episode, and Rubin’s YouTube show, The Rubin Report, boasting more than 700,000 subscribers. Rogan’s podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, was and remains the most popular podcast in the world.
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