Since we are around the 6 year anniversary of the IDW debut in the NYT, myself and political writer/podcaster (former rightwinger himself) Matthew Sheffield (@mattsheffield on Twitter) did a Twitter Space last week (14th May 2024) to honour this magnificent group of intellectual giants…

We took an in-depth look at the history of both the ‘Intellectual Dark Web’ and more broadly…the history of rightwing movements rebranding as new, exciting, different, transgressive or even ‘counter cultural’/ ‘heterodox’ while they continue to spout the same orthodoxies and viewpoints upholding the status quo.

You will never believe the SHOCKING conclusion …..are the IDW truly Heterodox or just another attempt at a rightwing movement rebranding themselves?

We also did a bit of a ‘where are they now’ segment, let me tell you dear listeners — they are not in the greatest intellectual shape, these Renegades of the Intellectual Dark Web…

Please note this is a live event, so the audio is not up to usual podcasting standards - apologies! We cleaned it up as best we could.
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Links:

Archived version of the original IDW article in the New York Times by Bari Weiss https://web.archive.org/web/20180508113210/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/08/opinion/intellectual-dark-web.html

Archived version of the ‘Sleek Website’ that Bari references in her ‘Meet the Renegades of the IDW’ piece which is essentially just a list of awful people https://web.archive.org/web/20180509020318/http://intellectualdark.website/

The IDWesque article from 1995 that Matthew was referring to, also from the NYT https://www.nytimes.com/1995/02/12/magazine/the-counter-counterculture.html

A piece I wrote a couple of years ago on Harris’ rightwingery and how New Atheism in general has been useful for the Christian Right https://x.com/mattsheffield/status/1490457060307177472?s=61&t=w7q_ejvwZ_gCFj9WV50Lqw

Eric Weinstein’s unhinged ‘to the victims go the spoils theory’ re: Palestinians https://x.com/nicemangos/status/1790462571537133925?s=61&t=w7q_ejvwZ_gCFj9WV50Lqw

The Evopsych episode mentioned in the Space: pt 1 https://open.spotify.com/episode/4jSFhcmT6xNJ4JOwbEkscE?si=By3wE6dxSs-oRRqHfyzYqQ

Pt 2 https://open.spotify.com/episode/5gvuP3xLyqKSpJgTjf43A3?si=jLKlykmWTj6tcu3dbW65ig

My recent ep on Dawkins mentioned in the Space https://open.spotify.com/episode/1uSIJRoF9LxkkNtRYBZvRV?si=1abadRJkRw-RK7O7nP1orA

Polite Conversations episode on the IDW in Pakistan & Saudi which also came up in the Space: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4OWPkudZ6zfH7p9swNXAtI?si=Ofpw6DuYReOjtX_AKzyCBw

Twitter Space: IDW - ‘Heterodox or RW Rebrand’? (Full episode)

Growing up in Saudi Arabia as a Pakistani, who now resides in Canada, Eiynah brings a global perspective to discussions about religion, politics, culture & sexuality...through the lens of a progressive ex-muslim immigrant.

This podcast often focuses on unpacking various forms of extremism, particularly types that are less overt and masquerading as ‘intellectual’.