On Identity and the Intellectual Dark Web
It’s OK to not take a side on the IDW. In fact that’s kinda the point.
It’s OK to not take a side on the IDW. In fact that’s kinda the point.
I don’t know why we search so hard for identity. Maybe because we strive for connection, maybe because social media while bringing us closer together has also made us more isolated. Or maybe because I’m an insecure, terrified of being alone, riddled in Dad and Mom issues, codependent artist! WHO KNOWS?! Shhhh.
We section ourselves into tribes pretty early. Rich, poor or middle class. Christian, Jewish, or Muslim. Then when we go to college we briefly come together as, “spiritual but not religious.”
Then you grow up. Now it really starts to count.
We are Democrats, Republicans, or Independents, who by the way are cowards. Pick a team and start losing friends like the rest of us! If you stray from your tribe or retweet someone from an opposing tribe you risk being banished. I still am afraid to retweet some people even if I like the content.
Politics is high school all over again except the popular kids get to bomb whoever they want and bankrupt the poor kid table.
Is that when this all started?
When I was in high school I started as a punk kid, then when that didn’t work I became a hippy, then when I ran out of money for weed I became straight edge. If you can’t afford drugs you might as well become preachy about not doing them!
What all of these phases in life has in common is this: Label yourself or get the fuck out.
This week everyone has been online-furious over a new group, The Intellectual Dark Web.
Bari Weiss wrote a piece profiling this group in the NYT and the internet went batshit. I won’t go over the back story cause you have read it a million times in every god damn think piece responding to it. In short, picture of dudes by trees, Jordan Peterson, etc etc. (Google it).
A lot of people on the left would consider the figures profiled in this piece alt right. From Joe Rogan, to Sam Harris. The problem is they aren’t. They hold some more conservative views then the woke crowd but they aren’t alt right. They aren’t fully liberal either. And guess what? That’s ok. In fact that’s good. Bernie Sanders is talked about like he is a louder Noam Chomsky, but homeboy is lax on guns. That’s ok too. Not everyone fits into our neat boxes anymore and we should be fine with that.
When I hear Jordan Peterson talk about trans pronouns I disagree. When I hear him talk about being more confident I agree. Brett Weinstein is called transphobic and I heard one of his talks where he called for equality for all people, Trans people specifically. It was actually really beautiful. That part didn’t go viral. But it’s important to know. Glenn Greenwald, who is not a fan of the IDW, went from being adored by Democrats when he was tearing into Bush to hated when he did the EXACT same thing to Obama, and now they think he is a Russian agent or some shit.
This piece isn’t about being pro IDW or against it. A fan of the Intercept, or Sam Harris. I don’t give a shit. To quote my favorite philosopher Bruce Lee, “Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless.” Don’t discount everything someone says because they aren’t on your team.
It’s ok to stray from the tribe. It’s OK to want a woman president and not have supported Clinton, or old torture fingers Gina Haspel. It’s OKto support Bernie Sanders on all issues except gun control. It’s OK to listen to Joe Rogan while also listening to Pod Save America, or Democracy now. But it is NOT OK TO WATCH FOX NEWS. (Sorry. But you get it.)
If we don’t start talking to the people who hold some of our views but not all of them we are going to end up being in an echo chamber of garbage. Where we tweet just to get affirmations. Where we spend all day rewording our friends Facebook posts for likes. Where we never get challenged because we are too busy shouting down anyone who isn’t in our club.
Start to make your own box. Your own tribe. Take great ideas from everywhere. Not just from twitter, but also from people you meet in the real world, by putting your phone away and going outside. Don’t get outraged before you have even read an article. If you made it this far then you are on your way!